My Relationship Saga by Raheemat Jimoh 

Popping pills everyday

Because I can’t find a better way

I’m a drug seeker seeking drugs for healing 

I know what you’re thinking and you’re right

I’m an addict

But not of marijuana or cocaine, but of folic acid and OPIOIDS

Addiction takes many forms, and mine wears a mask of healing

Like a vampire, I take blood too

From sack to vein, a journey unfolds, with care and precision

Infusing hope and healing with each passing drop

The fear of the next attack, a burden I can’t unwind

The uncertainty in the time of crisis

My blood and I have a love-hate saga

In a silent scream, my lungs yearn for a breath

My organs whisper, plead for air’s embrace

This unseen burden, a secret I must bear

I’ve learnt to cope, green plants have become my best friends

We exchange gases so we can both live

So as green leafy vegetables, dairy products and fruits

Those are the other routes to escape pain

Pain that claws at every inch of my soul

My blood, a battlefield where cells clash and fight

Sickle-shaped warriors, locked in a desperate plight

Wrestling for the oxygen they deserve

It doesn’t get easier

I see you are strong today, they say

But I end up in the ICU the next

Twenty minutes spent in a silent war

needle against vein, the prickling a rising tide threatening to drown my resolve

But I need these drops to revive my spirit

I’ve been growing and groaning in pains all my life

How awful it is that my RBC is shaped like a moon and not like a doughnut

I have to battle with infections, complications and medications

I couldn’t play with the other kids growing up

It’s either too cold outside or the activity is too strenuous for my health

That I have to stay hydrated five time more than you

They say I trade my doctorate for doctor visits

But if only they’d see past the jaundice, the pain they can’t see

They’d know I’m more than just sickly, more than their label defines

Admist the pain, a glimmer of hope remains

A yearning for a future, free from these chains

Compatibility, is a whispered promise

To break the curse, to rewrite the script

For generation free

from the fight

No longer bound by pain’s cruel hand