OXIDANT | ENGINE : Issue 9
Bonnie Billet
The alphabet of disease
In the alphabet of disease
each letter
is a separate curse. There's sugar
in the blood, silence in the mind,
fat in the veins,
and both a tightening and bulging
of the spine. Infirmities
dive like sea birds,
into a bait ball. I can't bring
my groceries in from the car.
I can't open
the apartment windows.
I'm estranged from sleep. Pain
lights up my days
and dazzles my nights. I live
in the present
eight seconds at a time.
Bonnie Billet wrote until her late 30’s and was published in a number of journals no longer in print and in POETRY. During the years she stopped writing she ran a small landscaping business in NYC. She started writing again when she retired and has been published in several publications including Yes Poetry, Heavy Feather, Black Cackle and accepted for publication in Rhino.