Epilepsy: an inevitable thief

A poem about Epilepsy and seizures. My experiences of dealing with Epilepsy from the diagnosis

Epilepsy: An Inevitable Thief.

Written by Desmond Makatu,

Your visits are unpredictable.
It’s like battling a ghost because you’re a disability that’s invisible.
A thief, whose attacks are inevitable and come like a thief at night,
You seize me day and night.
Your cruelty is not restricted to age or ethnic groups.
My life consists of time gaps.
Gaps, like mathematical discrete graphs.
Cracks, depicting a thin line between life and death,
Grace bridges the gaps and life prevails over death.
Seizures still haunt me like a demonic wrath.
Epilepsy, you are an inevitable thief.
Your bruises can last for a lifetime but attacks are brief.
Every seizure provides questions only God can answer.
My quest for answers seems like searching for a cure for Cancer.
Sometimes death seemed to be the answer but God thought otherwise.
Epilepsy shows no remorse, seizes even toddlers.
My first seizure shook me like multiple earthquakes followed by a pool of darkness.
I woke up confused and facial expressions of the crowd said a thousand words.
Migraines raided my head and exposed my mind to enormous pressure,
This manifests a baptism by a wrath of a seizure.
Epilepsy is a thief that victimizes physically and psychologically.
Like a Yoyo, you take me into a roller-coaster of emotions.
The aftermath of your theft are engraved in my mind as if they’re on stones.
What’s behind my “poker face” is devastating than the physical injuries seen by the crowd.

Reviews

[Emily]

This is amazing, I was diagnosed with epilepsy when I was 17 and its definitely a cruel disease!

[John the Baptist]

This effort uses imagery beautifully to show us how a seizure seems to the one having it. In the course of my career in mental health I knew many people who had the diagnosis and on occasion had to provide assistance when the episodes occurred. I say assistance, but all I could do was to help them get safely to the floor without harm and wait for the tremors to stop. A frightening disease. Thanks for the insights provided here.