A few poems I find very accurate about living with ME/CFS:

Living with ME/CFS is exercise

Imagine you spent an hour jogging on a treadmill

This is akin to me walking 0.2 miles

Night breathes close against my ear

She says: you are mine now

After that 0.2 miles, I can hear my bed,

the echo of my heartbeat on the pillow

Imagine you spent an hour lifting weights

My equivalence would be grocery shopping.

Night has a rough, low voice.

She sound like a pack-a-day smoker.

Imagine you drove eight hours.

This is me driving into town.

Imagine you drove eight more hours.

This is me driving back home.

Night holds onto my hair.

When I try to rise from bed.

Imagine walking on a tightrope.

This is me taking a shower.

Trying not to fall. Imagine

Night pulled your arms and legs

until they achedfor even thinking

about how nice a shower would be

Every time I leave the house

I climb a tall mountain.

All along its switchback trails

with night falling quickly, taunting

You should have brought a flashlight!

Night shoves me into bed as soon as I get home

I was thinking something, It seemed important

but night turned off my brain and pulled my eyes shut.”- by Mary Ann Honaker

Chronic Illness is a Cage:

and its walls are painted Magenta.

but the landlord says you cannot redecorate-

no photos, no colours, no shelves for joy-

just a small window to watch the seasons pass by.

From the outside , it could convince you it’s home

From the inside , it could convince you it’s a safe space.

But anything you cannot leave willingly

is a prison”.

-by Sabina Laura.

and this one, which is just so true. Relationships (like boyfriend/girlfriend) are so hard to maintain with this illness and I think for me this is pretty accurate on how Id feel , I think it was anonymous. I wish I saw the poets name, but I guess Ill just have to go with Anonymous….

The Quiet Distance

I have so little fuel to spend

and every thought of you is flame

I hold the quiet where you end,

and Softly’, Softly’ speak your name.

to love you is to want the sun,

to walk beside you in the street,

to let the wild old rhythms run,

with steady pulse and willing feet.

but my world shrinks to four pale walls, a heavy limb, a dimming room.

where every sudden echo falls,

and morning brings a weight of gloom.

So I must drop

the hand I crave,

and turn the heavy anchor slow-

To keep you safe,

to be brave,

I love you far too much to go

Into your life and drag you down

to this dark shore where shadows creep

so I will love you

from this town,

and watch you while I sleep”.- Anonymous