MS Awareness week - Limboland haiku sequence

Hello all

It is Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Awareness Week across the globe. To mark this, I have written the following haiku sequence.

Regular readers will know that I was diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting MS in 2008. Limboland was inspired by the journey to diagnosis.

Limboland

no hint of a smile -
for once my doctor says
"take it easy"

on the scan room ceiling
cherry blossom -
the staff retreat behind glass

not crying yet ...
your chin dimples
as you talk

diagnosis
I salute the magpie
anyway

on the news a terror attack ...
my leg
numb again

from a packed lift
a man on crutches
follows me to clinic

new year's eve
the bowl slips from my fingers...
smashes

Just a note on the cherry blossom haiku. Diagnosis of MS requires an MRI scan, but to eliminate other possible ailments including brain tumours an initial CT Scan is performed. This was described to me as being like sticking your head in a giant washing machine and I reckon that's a pretty good description.

I don't know if there is anything similar in other hospitals but at the Royal Hallamshire in Sheffield they have a light box on the ceiling of the scan room with an image of cherry blossom on it. I presume this is to calm the nerves while your head is x-rayed. Cherry blossom is an image often used in haiku, it normally signifies spring which in turn can also imply beginnings.

Limboland is also appearing somewhere on the MS Society website http://www.mssociety.org.uk/ and on my personal haiku blog: http://distantlightning.blogspot.com/

http://www.mstrust.org.uk/msawareness/
http://www.mssociety.org.uk/get_involved/campaigning/ms_week_2009.html