through the mirror i tell myself
in gratitude to Iskandar Haggarty
when life gives you lyme again & my word many more
times again if it ever left at all you make lemon water
& you take your antibiotics or your antivirals or
your herbs or / & your supplements & you
detox your demons out & you dream
your nightmares away & you feel
bad & foggy & is this even
real before you feel better
even just a little because
it hides & masks &
lingers until you
catch up & hit it
off-guard & then you
get well & you will get
there believe me & others
before there is no other choice
because this is not only about your
struggling or my struggling there are many
fighters in need of validation in need of comfort
in need of help & to not feel lonely & abandoned
so you get well & heal & rise & tell them a legend of
a warrior on a battleground of in / out except this is no
legend this is for real & this is you & this will be them too.
Nadia Gerassimenko is the founding editor of Moonchild Magazine and proofreader at Red Raven Book Design. She is a freelancer in editorial services by trade, a poet and writer by choice, a moonchild and nightdreamer by spirit. Nadia self-published her first chapbook Moonchild Dreams (2015). at the water’s edge is her second chapbook (Rhythm & Bones Press, 2019). Follow Nadia on Twitter.