Arthritic Lifestyles

Arthritic Lifestyles Christa Fairbrother (bio) All the time, absolutely anxiety-inducing. Buy the brace, Bitch!Catch. Click, Crunch, Crepitus. Disabled designation decisions.Exercise, excise out the holes. Fitness-tracker food, feelings,your failings. Gloves, the gift that keeps on giving. Heart health. Inherited, inheritance, check your will. Joints.Roll them, smoke them, joints for the joints. Karma,you must have been really bad in a past life. Martyr yourself?Never. Ointments from snake oil salesmen. Persistent pain prayers. Questions, queries for the rheumatologist.Regret for the sensible shoes. Tea, gin, chocolate.Toss the tasty treats. Updo's, hair loss uncovered your vanity. Vegan, just do it. Wistful. Watching your kidsplay sports without you. X-rays. Yoga.Zafu-cushion meditations to rise above it all End Page 97 Christa Fairbrother Christa Fairbrother, MA, is the current poet laureate of Gulfport, Florida. Her poetry has appeared in Arc Poetry, Orca, Prism Review, Stoneboat, and The Sunlight Press, among others. She's been a resident with the Sundress Academy for the Arts and the Bethany Arts Center, a participant in Writers in Paradise, and her chapbook, Chronically Walking, was a finalist for the Kari Ann Flickinger Memorial Prize. Her book Water Yoga (Singing Dragon, 2022) won medals from the Nautilus Book Awards and the Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Literary Awards. She frequently writes about chronic illness and she loves tea and avocados. Copyright © 2024 Pleiades and Pleiades Press