a metaphor for chronic pain - audrey t. carroll

Nerve plants: known to be

temperature sensitive.

Preserve under glass.

Grow in fertile soils

and water regularly.

Fainting may occur.

When in doubt, water

it out. Revival of the

plant is often swift.

Creeping evergreen:

recovery looks easy.

And this is where the

metaphor breaks: the

body breaks, and solutions

are not so simple.

Audrey T. Carroll is the author of the What Blooms in the Dark (ELJ Editions, 2024) and Parts of Speech: A Disabled Dictionary (Alien Buddha Press, 2023). Her writing has appeared in Lost Balloon, CRAFT, JMWW, Bending Genres, and others. She is a bi/queer/genderqueer and disabled/chronically ill writer. She serves as a Diversity & Inclusion Editor for the Journal of Creative Writing Studies, and as a Fiction Editor for Chaotic Merge Magazine. She can be found at http://AudreyTCarrollWrites.weebly.com and @AudreyTCarroll on Twitter/Instagram.