KNEE BRACE PRESS

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

Poetry

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

    Misophonia

    By

    It’s about mouth breathers, gum chewers, pen clickers, foot tappers

  • Melody Dover

    The Dance

    By

    Years of tedious fighting with Pain I now tread the boundaries between

  • Vulture

    By

    “Our love laid thick and bitter on my tongue/I choked it down as not to spit/I laughed so not to lunge.”

  • Last Call at the Cancer Café

    By

    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

    By

    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.

  • 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

    By

    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

    By

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

  • Constant Reminder

    By

    In his prose poem, survivor Phil Scearce writes about what it’s like to live after recovering from cancer.

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

    True Enough

    By

    “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

    By

    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.