Hey everyone! The poem below is pretty special to me, and I wanted to share it with everyone…(or the few readers I might have) I was going through my 2009/2010 8th grade English journal, and I came across this poem that I had written on September 23rd. We had been given a free write, and I wasn’t feeling too hot, so I wrote a poem about being sick. After English class, I went to the clinic and was sent home. As it turns out, I had gotten the H1N1 flu!! What makes me laugh is that despite all odds, I was still able to write a pretty humorous poem. (Well, it’s humorous to me, considering I had a pretty high fever when I was writing it…)

I feel my head spinning,
and I’m sitting, sitting, sitting,
and feeling as if
I might possible explode.
I don’t feel like sitting or standing
more like lying on the ground
there’s a buzzing in my head,
and odd sort of sound.
Someone’s drilling on my forehead,
someone’s clapping in my ears,
a whistle is another sound
I just don’t want to hear.
Make it stop! Make it stop!
Let’s put an end to this
I just want to go to sleep –
is that such a bad wish?
There are goosebumps on my arms,
chills down my spine
I’m just waiting for a monster
to pop up in this rhyme.
I think I must be sick
nothing seems to stick
the teacher is talking,
kids are walking…
The floor is shaking,
I feel like I am baking –
oh, now I’m cold again.
I let loose a cough
beg for medicine
talk nonsense
and chatter into oblivion.
Someone’s hand is in the air,
no, it’s more like four,
everything goes blurry
and I find myself on the floor…
“Call the nurse!”
“911!”
is all I hear for now,
but I think of my mom –
because I know she’ll have a cow!

Ha, ha! As you can see, it IS a bit exaggerated…there wasn’t really any buzzing in my head, the floor wasn’t shaking, and I didn’t find myself on the floor. Nobody had to call 911, either. However, I think you can get the gist of just how badly I was feeling. I DID have chills, and I was getting hot and then cold over and over again. Well, I hope it made you smile, too. 🙂

– Brooke