A Small Poetry Book

Huntington's Disease

Huntington's Disease

It's a disease that grows inside the brain
It's not well known and can't be tamed

It contorts the figure that you once knew
It holds her hands and steps on her shoes

It swings her left and it tilts her right
It spins her around in this dizzying night

It won't let go and leans her back
It has no feelings for the lives it impacts

It eats her brain and corrupts her cells
It shrinks her frame and doesn't mean well

It holds her throat when dinner is served
It erases memory of words she had learned

It gives her thoughts of pills and guns
It flips a coin for her daughter and son

It doesn't stop until she's dead
It then destroys her loved one's heads

It's impossible to get through every level
And It's well known as the dance with the devil

-MRC
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A/N:

In 1998 (I believe) my papa pressed his own hunting rifle to his head and pulled the trigger. His ten year old son came home from school on the bus, expecting to see his dad, found him outside with a hole in his head. He had Huntington's Disease and he wasn't even that bad yet. His sister also committed suicide with pills five years before him. She had the same disease. His other sister, was a fighter. She died just two years ago from choking on a pill. It was a pill to help with her movements as well.

My mother has it now too, though she can't see. The disease decided it wanted to get to her mental cells first, then her physical. She literally cannot see that she has it and it's as plain as day light. She's getting really really bad, has to drink from a straw now, and hardly eats. She's shaking badly, slow eye movements, her hair is falling out. She refuses to get help, refuses to talk about it.

I'm scared honestly, because I was one of those unlucky people to have to be born in a family with such an ungodly disease. It's an inherited disease too, so that means I have a fifty-fifty chance of having it. My aunt has it too, we found out three years ago.

This disease has no cure and has a very small amount of medications to help, but they are VERY pricy. Even if she did want help, I can only see an ocean of bills.

This disease is horrible and if anyone lives with it, I am so, so, fucking sorry. No one should ever have to deal with it. I wouldn't wish such a dreadful thing on my worst enemy.