No Technological Devices Will Assist

No wheelchair ramp, no braces,
no cane, walker or interpreter,
no special van, door knobs,
no thirty-six inch wide doors
will serve to give me access.

No accommodation will change the facts. There’s
nothing you, or I, medicine or technology,
nothing even love, can do.

Not chemotherapy, or radiation, not a pill,
a treatment, not even an infusion of immune
globulin will replace the cellular immunity,
the Natural Killer cells, the monocytes,
lymphocytes, that are deficient, the Primary
Immune Deficiency that makes human interaction
the most virally-laden, life-threatening experience,
that keeps me infected, isolated, alone, left out,
misunderstood, and ill.

Chronic illness may be invisible. No, I don’t
smoke or drink. I’m not obese. I exercise, eat
a healthy diet, take vitamins, am disciplined,
motivated, keep a schedule.

You probably never heard of my disease. It’s not
poster-worthy. It’s genetic. It’s become worse,
it’s not what I counted on. I haven’t become
used to it. And today I’m angry about it.