A Sonnet for Autoinflammatory Arthritis
I used to hand-wash my delicates in the sink.
Now I do laundry without separating
darks from lights, the spin cycle distorting
elastics and disfiguring hems. In-
different to the results, I dress
in uncomplicated outfits with collars
and cuffs to find refuge in, without zippers
or buttons to challenge brinicle digits
that no longer so easily slip through those
ceramic handles of mugs of Earl Gray
tea. My joints are intersections trafficked by
microscopic blood brackets, bellicose
parentheticals locking the grid with
their toothy taunts, their bent metallic wrath.
The winner of the 2022 Cider Press Review Book Award for Inheritance with a High Error Rate (January 2024), Jen Karetnick is the author of 10 additional poetry collections. She lives with Ankylosing Spondylitis and other co-morbidities in Miami, where she is the co-founder and managing editor of SWWIM Every Day. See jkaretnick.com.