Chronic Pain is a commentary by Malia Nahinu about living with a spine disease that affects her daily life. In this book, she expresses poetry and art to show her experience with the mental, emotional, and spiritual struggles of pain.
A Civil War:
It’s hard to tell whether
My pain is of the heart
Of the mind
Or of the air
That I am breathing
An air of anger
Of lack of clarity
Cementing itself into my nerves
Ripping apart my muscles
Tightening my vessels
Deteriorating the very spine that gives me strength
It’s hard to tell where this pain came from
If it’s really sports
Or sadness pinching every nerve
Stopping me from being happy
There is a war inside my body
There is a civil war inside my being
My sanity speaks to my insanity
They have no closure
They live in curses and hexes
Fighting each other for peace or chaos
Wanting to control my fate
And my spirit sits on timeout
Crying out to the oceans
“free me!!”