{"sf1_id":1698539,"sf2_id":"JewgZMeO","title":"Autoimmune Scarring of the Myelin Sheath","author":"Rob MacWolf","words":343,"posted_at":"2021-03-23T17:18:00.000Z","tags":["Autobiographical","Gay","M/M","Poetry","Romance","blank verse"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1698539-autoimmune-scarring-of-the-myelin-sheath","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/JewgZMeO","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/70/11/70112659-8172-4655-90bd-8ba5e7086947","description":"#11 of poetry\n\nFor more information about Multiple Sclerosis, the National MS Society is here: https://www.nationalmssociety.org/","content":"The coming summer heat looks to be cruel  \nAs ever it has been. Grey autumn can  \nNot easily come soon enough for me.  \nAnd what an evil fate is ours, my love,  \nThat such embittered words should ring so true.  \nThat at the highest loft of light and life  \nYou should feel only weariness. That in  \nThe easy feast of triumphed humankind  \nYou should turn bilious and shrink away  \nFrom dishes overspiced, from palaces  \nToo carpeted and too corinthian,  \nFrom dances too exhausting ere we could  \nComplete a single round. I blame you not.  \nFor blaming you is not within my power,  \n(Small consolation though that doubtless is.)  \nBut it is not for any sin of yours,  \nOr mine, or ours, or his, or hers, or theirs,  \nThat such a curse of counterbliss you bear.  \nBlame chance, blame cruel genetics, blame the fates,  \nBut never blame yourself. So feel no shame  \nWhen gathered are the Jobs of latter days  \nTo all bemoan against the Lord. You bear  \nA cross no lighter than the most of these.  \nLift up thy voice! And say, I too am cursed.  \nMy days are filled with song I cannot hear,  \nMy nights are hung with stars I cannot see,  \nMy lands o'erflow with honey, and with milk,  \nFor all tongues but mine own. And then return  \nTo whatsoever autumn comfort I  \nCan give you. Coolness, quiet, and the calm.  \nFor if you cannot dance, then I would sit  \nBeside you. If you cannot eat, then I  \nWould sooner fast with you than would break bread  \nWith kings and emperors. And if the light  \nIs too intensely hot for you, then I  \nWill blow the candles out, will shut the blinds,  \nWill bid the sun set swiftly. Summer's heat,  \nThough cruel indeed, will not eternal be.  \nAutumn will come for each of us, for me,  \nAnd you as well. And should it come today,  \nOr twenty seven thousand years from now,  \nTo take you from me, that day will I say,  \nAnd not before, that autumn comes too soon.\n\n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"poetry","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1697648-rest-less.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1700241-sunstroke.json"}}