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

Hopelessly Romantic

By

my
eyes
analyze
your masked smize
as you walk by

sigh

masks make me
icky
licky
sticky

yet complacency
takes over me
for the place I want to be

is with your
disabled body
stimulating me
mentally
physically
emotionally
spiritually
quixotically
eternally

I am

hopelessly romantic
as I
use these semantics
to try
and be pedantic
in my
description of you
and how
every time I’m with you
I ask
Chronos to press
pause

hold back
these bars
for I
do not have due cause

how can I
be so finicky
as one who’s
never been known as picky
but with you
I’m skewed
doing things I normally would not do
and it’s cutting me loose
you fibrillate me without booze
you’re obtuse
but acute
1
u
r

Contributor

  • Mugabi Byenkya is an award-winning writer. In 2018, they were honored as one of fifty-six writers who has contributed to their native Uganda’s literary heritage in the fifty-six years since independence by Writivism, East Africa’s largest literary festival. Check out the rest of their work on their website, mugabibyenkya.com.