HARD TIMES
(listen to the poem, read by the author)
anxiety is sickness. the root cause of sickness is sickness. that thing that happened to you was a sickness. it made sickness in you. violence is a sickness. pollution is a sickness. sickness is hard work. hard work causes sickness. medication for sickness causes sickness. medication for the medication is hard work. desperation is a sickness & hard work. no sleep is a sickness. too much sleep is a sign of sickness. self-psychoanalysis is hard work. overthinking is sickness. falling on bad times make sickness. man-made sickness. conspiracy theory sickness is just hard work. government-borne sickness. birth sickness. vomiting & viral sickness is hard work. body dysfunction is hard work. social body dysfunction is sickness.
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About the Author
Lucy Hurst is a poet and writer, with a PhD in creative writing from York St John University. Her work often discusses chronic illness and disability through experimental forms. Her first pamphlet, Modern Medicine, was published by Fly on the Wall in 2021, and its title poem was shortlisted for the 2020 Bridport Prize.