Content Warnings: diagnosis, sick infant, needles/injections

If you, Disease, are born
the day you’re diagnosed,
then a screaming, sickly
infant has been thrust
into my nine-year-old arms
and sewn, needle by needle,
into my skin.

I do not know
how to care for you,
or how to care for myself
with you forever attached,
my curse and my shadow,
my very own flesh.

Trystan Popish (she/her) is a poet and essayist from Colorado. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and can be found in Pleiades, The Sunlight Press, Santa Fe Writers Project Quarterly, Rogue Agent Journal, and elsewhere. She lives in Denver with her husband, their toddler, diabetes, depression, two dogs, and two hairless guinea pigs.

Website: trystanpopish.com
Instagram: @poppetpoet