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# Severe
- URL: https://dianaludwick.com/severe/
- Published: 2026-09-19T12:44:11.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:04:41.000Z
- Description: “Severe,” a short and interrupted poem on falling prey to the latest fall plague, written Saturday, September 19, 2026 poem 262 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo: "Severe," by Diana Ludwick © 2026.
- Author: Diana Ludwick
- Tags: 2026 Poetry Challenge, Poems, Bedridden, Cold, Flu, Illness, Late Summer, Saturday, September, Severe, Severe Cold and Flu, Sick, #Migrated-1792872215677, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-24 20:03

Opaque lights   
flood the ceiling  
  
  
I blink up  
strain to find a focal point  
not swaying, shifting, escaping me  
  
My brain and my eyes both  
move   
slowly, mechanically.  
  
Where am I?  
What am I.  
When is this?   
Why can't I feel my limbs.  
  
The orange box   
that lurks on the dresser  
it lingers and laughs at me  
its generic toxins  
throb through my temple  
course through my faint pulse  
  
Wobbling, weary,   
sweat-ringed and caged  
flail about in the sheets  
  
I feel weightless   
and weighed down   
as wet concrete,   
both  
  
Drag my hand over damp duvet  
clench the scalloped edge   
until hand strength falters  
  
I close my lids  
force them back open  
with an emphasis   
that winds me.  
  
What's worse?  
The virus?  
Or the antidote?   
  
This  
I ask myself  
every flu season.