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Lisa O'Hare's avatar

I always tell my nieces my hobbies include being cozy and sleeping. Love a bit of rest.

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Emily's avatar

They are my two most favourite states.

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Roger Simpson's avatar

Yes, like you and many others I now suffer suffer from chronic fatigue after contracting Covid. Though this may actually be hyperparathyroidism and the dear old NHS is slowly working through its catalogue of tests to determine if this is indeed the case for me. Either way it is disabling. When I was feeling particularly useless I wrote this, though it must be said that some days are better than others and it does not represent how I am ALL the time!

CFS

This grey tide that swells about me

This dull ache of time

This turgid press of incompletion

Erasing what was mine

A failing crush of expectation

Aching in my brain

Taking all my concentration

To hang in and remain

A lassitude of broken insight

Mocks me from about

Stuck and bound in this inertia

Mired in my doubt

Cures abandoned in the frenzy

Of science’s quick buck

On the waiting list for rescue

But we’re out of luck

Taken in the broadest daylight

Robbed in plainest sight

I have lost the things that give life

I have lost the fight

Fatigue is my constant sorrow

Thinking is confused

No longer are there plans tomorrow

The future is refused

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Emily's avatar

Ah Roger, I really recognise all of this. I think it's always valid to write about how you feel at a certain time. That fog and greyness throughout the poem, and the idea of being 'robbed' really resonate with me. The NHS is a wonderful thing, but ill-equipped for much of the complex modern diseases. My own experience was equally as frustrating. Thanks for sharing your words, and if it helps at all, I now feel sooooooo much better. Not all the time, but back to regular amount of activity most of the time.

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