Invisible Menace
An original poem about spring's darker side
Spring is a time for renewal. New life emerges from the cold, dark winter. Green leaves fill out once-barren tree branches. Vibrant, colorful flowers rise above their mother soil. It’s a wonderful time of year.
Unless you suffer from severe allergies like me.
When the calendar signals spring has arrived again, a ticking clock starts counting down. Pollen arrives with blossoms. Unlike the movies where the hero dramatically diffuses the bomb with one second to spare, there’s no circumventing the inevitable here. The pollen will attack with ferocity and allergy medicine becomes as much a part of me as food or water.
My latest poem is all about the invisible menace that makes clogged sinuses feel like a new circle of Hell that Dante forgot to mention.
Blossoming flowers under sun-kissed skies steal labored breaths, sting my watery eyes. Behind every cough. fueling every sneeze. Microscopic particles coating grass and trees. I can't flee untouched. No place left to hide. Pollen like sand grains, infinite on every side. Legions of tiny soldiers sweeping over verdant land. Behind an air filter fortress, I will make my final stand. The world is a lovely garden. An incubator for renewed life. Allergies tread the same path, slice through me like a knife.
Did you enjoy this poem? Check out my other poetry in the Strange New Worlds archives.
Beta Readers Wanted
Do you enjoy reading stories that mix comedy and horror? If you answered yes to that question, I have an opportunity that might interest you.
I’m looking to recruit beta readers to read over a draft of my upcoming serial The Ghost Diaries ahead of the first episode’s debut. If you have time to read and offer constructive feedback on the story, please contact me. You can reply to this email or send me a direct message in Substack Notes and I’ll share additional details with you.
haha! sorry to hear Spring has such thorns for you - sometimes the most beautiful things in life carry a price! thanks for this!
I'm not sure how I've managed to dodge the allergy bullet. By all accounts, I shouldn't have been able to do so... both of my parents have terrible allergies with pollen, and that's not the only thing that irritates them. I'm so damn lucky.