migraine

fortnight this time
few times before
me head
very bad heads
suffered from migraines all my life
when the change came
I’m left with

take them as part of life
only you can do it
nobody else can help
take my mind of it
find something to take my mind
plenty of people worse of than me
would swap places
life’s ups and down
money doesn’t come into it
live your life to the full
say to myself people have the same problems
they get over it
have to do the same

pain I know its there
try and shut it away as much as I can
plenty worse
migraines for years
say to myself there’s another one
will go eventually

bad bump when I was a little girl
set them off
got to master it
up to you how you deal with it
walk around with a morbid face
that doesn’t help
people go around like it’s the
end of the world
that doesn’t help

when its coming on think
oh not again
nearly all my head
starts at the front goes around the back
severe pain
go on with it
not a lot you can do until it goes
dull headache
an hour
sometimes one eye goes
know one is coming
just deteriorates
then its gone
the Lord did hear me
let me have a good nights sleep

get mythered about things
get one
have to stop mythering
not to worry

pray to the Lord at night
please free me of this pain
more or less help me
grin and bare it till it went
really feel ill
no way out of it
ask Him to take me many times
but He said no you’ll get over it


determined to get there
nobodies going to stop me

Marjorie Rayner
October 2008


Photo Marjorie Rayner © Lois Blackburn 2009

ever

a stroke: it’s like freezing a piece of meat

waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting
a cancellation
put me back again
a slight stroke
couldn’t move my arm
so I lift it with the other one
don’t let it lie dead
rub the back of your hand
keep it going

and then it’s un-frozen

waiting and
try to keep moving
haul yourself
with a walking stick
to your exercises
tried, tired and knackered
they train you, so
if you fall in the house by yourself
trapped

but only in part and some remains

waiting and
trying to open the door
try to get to the phone
try to climb a step, up four inches
(one bad leg, two arms, nothing 100%)
terrifying thinking about it
don’t think, try to
get on, to stand

on ice.

Anonymous
24-31 July 2009

for further examples of arthur+martha poems please visit http://arthur-and-martha-poems.blogspot.com/

curtailed

spring starts its inspiration
we are locked up in hospital
we are cooped up canaries in submarines
people go potty in submarineslack of green

we are Birdman of Alcatraz
we are four square walls
looking out over the bay
watching others’ enjoyment
(me, I’m keen on the birds)
trees ring a hospital, an industrial estate
we are dead loss
green is the motivator to go
stifled in a wheelchair
raise your sight, your expectation

hides
behind
wraps us all in cotton wool
like the brontes we must
break out of the parsonage
we are pyjamas all day
we are institutional
lack of freedom to choose, lack of freedomto choose - when you’ve lost choice
you’ve lost.

Raymond West
11 June 2009


Photos copyright Lois Blackburn. for more photos please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/arthur-and-martha/