I feel sick. I don't know why;

The symptoms shadow the cause

And I sit here aching, in unexplained discomfort.

My back distresses: Feeling like someone's

Scraping at my spine with sharpened toothpick.

My feet tingle in stinging awakening

As pins and needles twist in patterned dance

Through my tortured heels and twitching toes.

I curl up tighter, smaller, shielding my body

But the pain is within and 'though not agonising –

Uncomfortable to say the very least.

I clutch my hurts to myself and contemplate them

With muddled, fractured mind.