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# Sick
- URL: https://dianaludwick.com/sick/
- Published: 2026-02-27T21:23:27.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:11:19.000Z
- Description: “Sick,” a determination of wellness or lack thereof, as contrasted with surrealist paintings from Salvador Dali. Written February 27, poem 058 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo, "Sick Day Matzo Ball Soup for One" by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026
- Author: Diana Ludwick
- Tags: 2026 Poetry Challenge, Humor, Poems, Children, February, Illness, Motherhood, parenting, relationships, School Days, Winter, #Migrated-1792872215677, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-24 20:03

As a parent times arise   
when you just don't   
quite know if your kid   
is truly sick  
or if they just don't  
want to leave  
the warmth of their PJs.  
  
But when I entered   
the dim living room  
at 6:51 a.m. to find her,  
my child, prostrate:  
drooped over the sofa  
dead in the eyes   
slack at the mouth  
immobile and listless  
as if Dali painted  
hot human pancakes  
draped on red couch  
and not metal and glass  
clocks melting into  
a rusty-earthed desert.  
  
In this case, I knew  
I already knew, I did.  
It was so obvious that  
she was out for the count  
but still I had to try:  
"Okay it's school time!"  
"Time to get ready!"  
"Forty minutes left!"   
My cheerful voice  
fooled no one.  
  
My partner intervened  
calling time of death  
on her school day:  
"She's not going   
a-n-y-w-h-e-r-e  
I mean look at her  
come on."  
  
And so I sighed   
while manifesting  
a patient smile  
for my now  
unfledged charge  
and I said   
to the heap of skin  
that purported to be  
my daughter:  
"Okay Sweetie,   
let's get you   
back into bed."  
  
It was when her face  
didn't click into  
a sly grin of victory  
— Bueller? Bueller? —  
that, there it was,  
reality struck loudly:  
tick-tock   
this kid is   
s-i-c-k   
sick.