Tag Archives: burning pain

29. No Pain! No Pain? No Pain!!

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Oh!
Lightness in my feet
No fire-ant bites on my toes
No tight wraps around my feet
No strong ropes pulling up my feet
No barbed-wire grips on my calves
No travelling sparklers within my legs
No pebbles-studded mats under my thighs
No kneading motions inside my arms
All quiet inside and outside
How beautiful!Alauda_arvensis_japonica_in_flight

Hurrah! No pain today!
Freedom!
True freedom!
Like a lark bathing in a clear blue sky,
singing, hovering, gliding, ascending —
Happy dolphins cruising, foraging, playing
in the vast blue sea —

Oh, wait a minute!
Is it just painkiller numbness?
Are my toes still there?
Are my feet still there?
Are my legs still alive?
What am I sitting on?800px-Cyclone_Catarina_from_the_ISS_on_March_26_2004

Mmm… No… pain. . ?
Oh no!
Stillness before a storm?
Stillness in the eye of a cyclone?
Oh … no. . !

Winds of light nagging pain
brewing steadily in the feet,
strengthening towards the knees,
intensifying into gale force winds along the thighs.
Storm waves surging up my back,
becoming a full force cyclone.
Again…
So soon…

Euroasian Skylark in Flight in Japan. Photo by Alpsdake.  Licensed under the CC A-S A 3.0 Unported license. via –https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alauda_arvensis_japonica_in_flight.JPG

Cyclone Catarina from the ISS on March 26, 2004.  Picture provided by the Earth Observations Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. Uploaded by Tom688. In public domain in USA.  via –https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cyclone_Catarina_from_the_ISS_on_March_26_2004.JPG

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© 2016 K-KLokePhD

25. Chronic Neuropathic Pain Flare-Up (2): Fire Ants Attack

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[‘Fire Ants Attack’ was published in Wordgathering,
A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature, Volume 9, Issue 3,
on September 11, 2015, at http://www.wordgathering.com/issue35/poetry/loke.html ]

Fire_ants_4 (1)

Fire_ants_2

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Here it comes:
ten contingents of thousands of fire ants
march up my toe cliffs and ridges, foot slopes and arcs.
In formation,
they hook their mandibles into thin flesh;
inject venom with their stingers,
setting my sensitive nerves on fire.
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Their fire spreads up the hills of my calves,
down through knee valleys and thigh plateaus,
until it reaches the buttocks mounts.2013_bushfire_tasmania_0002
There the fire ants build their fire mounds
that burn throughout day and night.
Sometimes, the fire leaps its walls and
spreads up into the plains of my back,
burning into shoulder blades, and onwards.
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Nothing can stop their march,
not even a change of posture;
even the famous pain fighters
have all lost their battles.
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Only when they are satisfied, do
the fire ant troops retreat,
sometimes slowly, backing down;
sometimes suddenly, disappearing overnight.
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800px-Fire_ant_queens_3589

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The caves, plains, mounts, plateaus, valleys, ridges, and cliffs –
all peaceful
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Alas! It’s only a Trojan celebration:
the fire ant soldiers have left their wooden horse behind;
the next attack is a sunrise away
and twice as ferocious.

.800px-Fire_Ants_on_water

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© 2015 K-KLokePhD

Fire Ants. By Mokkie. CC A-S A 3.00 Unported license. via-
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire_ants_2.jpg

Bushfire, Tasmania, 2013. By Toni Fish. CCA 2.0 Generic license. via-
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/2013_bushfire_tasmania_0002.jpg

Fire Ant Queens Ready for Flight. By Lamiot. CC A-S A 3.0 Unported license. via-
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire_ant_queens_3589.jpg

Fire Ants on Water.  By Turnbull FL.  CC A-S A 3.0 Unported license. via-
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire_Ants_on_water.jpg

24. Neuropathic Pain: Wires Cutting Deeply

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1280px-Barbed_tape_on_the_Golden_Gate_bridge_in_San_Francisco_136.

Sharp wires strangle my right ankle,
hack deep into fine bone.
Constant pain keeps me awake.

A thin, burning wire slices
my right bony sole into two.
Burning pain echoes up the whole leg.

A strong wire pulls the big toe
down towards the sole.
Sharp pain and spasm all the way up the spine.

A fine, tense, rigid wire
deeply and tightly engraves, with fire,
my lower chest wall and across the back.

A slight movement of arms or torso
drives the wires deeper,
tightening the cut further.

Deep cutting wires:
the neurosurgeon’s sharp knives.
Difficult to breathe.

Lying still in bed,
breathing deeply and slowly:
in and out,  in  and  out  ,   in   and   out…..

Chanting:
om mani padme hum ….
om mani padme hum ….

Falling asleep:
descending into peace.
Damaged nerves reconnect, regenerate.

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Tree_in_field_during_extreme_cold_with_frozen_fog.

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© 2015 K-KLokePhD

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“BarbedTape1” Photo by Tom Oates. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons –https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BarbedTape1.JPG#/media/File:BarbedTape1.JPG

“Tree in field during extreme cold with frozen fog” Photo by Ian Furst – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Tree_in_field_during_extreme_cold_with_frozen_fog.png#/media/
File:Tree_in_field_during_extreme_cold_with_frozen_fog.png

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23. Neuropathic Pain in My Body: Landscape and Temperature Variations

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Sitting in the wheelchair,
my body becomesCSIRO_ScienceImage_392_Naturally_Occurring_Fire
a landscape of sharp variations
with contrasting temperatures.

The foot bushlands are alight
with an inextinguishable, furious fire
day and night.

The calf volcanoes, rumbling
with restless sparklers inside,
ascend sharply to
snow-capped knee tops.800px-Mt.Fuji_from_Mt.Tohnodake

The icy thigh plateaus give way
to a torso wall weighing heavily
on the buttock mounds
sitting on warm, sharp rocks.

The upper back torso wall is cut
by razor-sharp frozen slates,
driven deep into the scapula caves
by movements.800px-India_-_Matheran_-_18_-_Monsoon_rains_(2799493740)

The chest wall is bombarded
with torrential monsoon rains
of sharp needles,
changing its temperature
from icy cold to warm.

The shoulder plateaus
are rigid, stiff and cold,
giving rise to a stiff neck column.

The whole torso is divided into two regions
by a ring of fire
just below the rib cage–
sensitive above, numb below
with neuropathic pain.

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Bush Fire, Australia. Photo by CSIRO, Australia.  CCA 3.0 Unported Licnse.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CSIRO_ScienceImage_392_Naturally_Occurring_Fire.jpg

Snow Capped Mt Fuji. Photo by Σ64.  CC A-S A 3.0 Unported License.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mt.Fuji_from_Mt.Tohnodake.JPG

Monsoon Rains, India. Photo by McKay Savage from London, UK.
CCA 2.0 Generic License.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:India_-_Matheran_-_18_-_Monsoon_rains_(2799493740).jpg
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