It’s time for my round of infusions, to prevent
another flare-up of small lesions that fork my skin
with their itchy daggers.

It’s time to sit in the lounge chair, my veins
open to the five-hour IV drip. My face
turns purple as I read anything

on my Kindle. Every half hour
the technicians check my pulse
and blood pressure. They adjust

the speed of the drip. Other patients
come and go. I am here for the long haul.
I’ll be back in two weeks

for the second dose that will make
my hair fall out. And then cycle back
in six months. But I’d rather do this

than swallow those whale doses
of prednisone, expose my blowfish face,
waddle on stuffed-sausage legs.

---

Barbara Krasner (she/her) is a New Jersey-based poet of ten collections, including Poems of the Winter Palace (Bottlecap Press, 2025), The Night Watch (Kelsay Books, 2025), Insomnia: Poems after Lee Krasner (Dancing Girl Press, 2026), and the forthcoming The Wanderers (Shanti Arts, 2026), and Memory Collector (Kelsay Books, 2027). She has been leaning into writing in response to art as a way to grapple with the confluence of several chronic conditions.

Instagram: @barbarakrasner
Facebook: @barbara.krasner
Website: www.barbarakrasner.com