Poem

TN-Face

This is my face,
My beautiful face.
Serene, whole, silently smiling.

Where are the lighting bolts, the arrows?
Why no bleeding, weeping sores?
No broken, shattered bones?

This is my face,
My mutilated nerves, my agony.
No peace here, no quiet moments.

Where is the comfort,
The visible badge? Pain so insubstantial,
All in my head.

This is my dis-ease, my life in dis-repair,
This subtle horror, indescribable torture.
Suffer onwards, cut, burn, excise.

Where is the cure, the beacon of hope?
When young is the new old,
More lives are destroyed.

These are our faces,
Our beautiful faces.
Pain endured, together we battle on.

Niki R Jones 2007