KNEE BRACE PRESS

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

Poetry

Submit your poem to Knee Brace Press! We welcome new voices and veteran poets alike.

Guidelines

All submissions must relate to chronic illness, disability, mental health and/or neurodivergence in some way. What that means is pretty much up to you. If you think your piece covers any of these topics, send it out way!

Our poems

  • Last Call at the Cancer Café

    You said you weren’t an if but a when

  • A white woman with short, light brown hair smiles at the camera. She wears blue-rimmed glasses and a pink polo shirt.

    Straight

    Poet and retired physical therapist Barbara Brooks writes a poem about the S curve of her spine, the pain that comes with it, and the peace that comes with knowing there is nothing she can do to change it.

  • That time you pushed me in the wheelchair at the airport

    “you were so, so bad at it. Just terrible, hitting every everloving bump.”

  • A woman with brown skin and long, brown hair gazes at the camera. She wears a pink shirt and a beaded black necklace.

    Canary Cry

    “Pain sears my chest, radiates from an incision  fish-netted by seventeen stitches.”

  • A white woman with long, brown hair gazes at the camera. She is indoors and the background is blurred. She wears a blue jacket over a yellow sweater.

    Notes from the Panini that Never Ends

    For people like Caitlin Thomson and her family, a societal lack of COVID precautions is even more isolating than the early stages of the pandemic.

  • A white person with short, brown hair. They are smiling at the camera with their mouth closed. The background of the photo is brick.

    At The Top

    “When I question my upbringing,/my therapist draws a peak./Tells me all religions glimpse/different angles of the same structure.”

  • A white man with shoulder-length white hair and a white beard.

    True Enough

    “Her dying happened in slow motion, like in a/dream you know is a dream but you/can’t wake up from.”

  • A white woman with long, light brown hair wearing a black jacket and green pants. She smiles at the camera and stands in front of a large clock.

    Cabin Fever

    Grace F. Hopkins has been collecting myths and urban legends since she “wasted” her undergraduate degree studying English, Classics, and folklore. Read her poem at the link below.

  • A white man with shoulder-length white hair and a white beard.

    On Deck

    Alan Abrams writes about grief, love, and baseball in his latest poem for Knee Brace Press.

  • A woman with brown skin and long, brown hair gazes at the camera. She wears a pink shirt and a beaded black necklace.

    Biofeedback

    “It’s my first time. I sink into cushy recliner. A monitor tracks blood pressure. The therapist adheres a finger sensor, a final electrode as I shut my eyes.”