KNEE BRACE PRESS

A place for stories about chronic illness, disability, mental health, and neurodivergence.

HPA axis dysfunction

By

My rabbit heart is in your hands,
warm and pulsing,
living, skittish.

It’s a hard job holding on.

Any tiny breath or sigh,
any shadow of a falling leaf half-seen,
it thumps

and drums hind legs to warn of threat.

You try to soothe and comfort it
but better just to stay
stock-still.

It’s been hunted many times,
surviving only due to this
old tendency to bolt.

Contributor

  • Erin Coppin is a disabled Canadian/British writer living in the UK. She has been published by Ink Sweat & Tears, Spelt Magazine, Popshot Quarterly, Fenland Poetry Journal, and others. She was the winner of the Unpublished Poet’s Prize in the Mslexia and Poetry Book Society’s Women’s Poetry Competition 2019.