Under the Weather

Here's day twenty-six's: submission for NaPoWriMo (a poem a day for the month of April in honor of National Poetry Month):

Under the Weather

What a deceptive phrase.

Under which weather?

Sunny? Rainy? Windy?

Under the fog we had this morning?

And why ‘under’ it?

Wouldn’t it make more sense

to be ‘within’ bad weather?

Or ‘caught up’ in the crappy climate?

It would be easy to write

a depressing poem tonight,

as the cold, flu, or whatever

this is reaches into my mouth

with long, ragged fingernails

and rakes the back of my throat.

It is joined by a compatriot,

who clamps off my sinuses

with slow-turning vice-grips in one hand,

while the other pounds a hammer on my temples.

“Shut the door, you guys!” I cry in vain

as chills race down my spine.

But the wind continues its low whistle

as they turn their attention

to stretch each joint and muscle

until even my skin aches.

I could write about the failings

of the body, this temporal curse,

that never is as dependable

as we’d like to make it seem.

Or the fragility of any current state of being –

health or love or depression: how change

is the only constant. this too shall pass.

But I’m feeling sick tonight.

And I’m just not up to it.