it’s hard to explain how tired I feel each day
my autoimmune disease attacking my bones
at the hip joint and spine I limp down the hall
to the water fountain where I joke but am serious
about needing a cane at my old job
there was one guy who brought a cane
to work each day but not out of need
more of an accessory when asked about it
he said something about using it to beat the ground
in front of him to check for snakes in Georgia
where he was from which sounded like
horseshit to me and a good way to get bit
I think it won’t be long before my father
needs a cane every year I watch my father
from whom I inherited my eyes and work ethic
and this disease grow stiffer as he walks
from bedroom to kitchen blinking a lot
and asking what’s for breakfast we have so little
in common it has almost become a joke
on car rides alone trying to fill
the silence he didn’t know he had it
until I found out tracing the pain
through waiting room after waiting room
until I learned the word for what we shared