The Stroke

by Shelley White
^{(creative writers at www.morewriting.co.uk)}
Searing shards of lightning
Crack deep within my brain.
A filigree of arteries
Is splintered by the pain.

Cannons blast the thunder
Of twenty thousand drums.
Assaulted by their 1812
My tortured head succumbs.

Kind sleep, oceanic black
Absorbs the fragile shell-
Nightmares later I awake
To face my living hell.

Jumbled are the words
Inside my head that spin-
Downturned is the mouth
That bears a frozen grin.

Heavy hang my arms
That once held babies sweet
Leaden lie my legs-
I cannot feel my feet.

Once I used to dance
To Sinatra on the floor
Once I could open
My own front door.

But what's the use of looking back?
Each day I set a goal-
There's many things I've learned to do-
I still can play a role.

Brain scan revealed a hemorrhage-
There'd been a minute flood.
(Stroke's common cause, hypoxia,
Not enough oxygen in the blood).

I used to like a cigarette
Now smoking is forbidden
I also have to lose some weight
The chocolates now are hidden.

Each day I take my tablets
And gentle exercise
This cuts down further risk of stroke
My doctor did advise.

At first I had a Zimmer frame
The physio I heeded
But with the progress that I've made
A stick is all that's needed.

I've learned to say my "esses" now
To you it may sound petty
But it meant all the world to me
When I could say "ssspaghetti".

I've also joined a Stroke Club
And made some lovely friends
Been going there for two months now
I feel I'm on the mend.

Sometimes I don't know if
I should laugh or I should cry
What I do know is that
I must try, try, try....