A holiday poem by Bob Morgenstern

Bob Morgenstern is a 66-year-old former high school teacher and truant officer from New York who has been dealing with Lyme for the past 15 years.  In the early 2000s, he connected with a lot of Lyme patients on the then-popular “Sci. Med. Diseases Lyme” internet group and would often write poems about them which he would post on the group.  Here’s a Christmas-themed one he’s given us permission to post here. The names in the following poem are all people he met through that group.

Night Before Lyme Christmas

by Bob Morgenstern

‘Twas the night before Christmas
And out on the ‘net
The Lymies were talking about
What they would get

They talked of prescriptions
Their stockings were fillin’
Doxy, Amoxy
Zithro, Ampicillin

Flagyl, Mepron,
Claforan, Tinidazole
Some on I.V. Rocephin
Stuck tied to a pole.

After a while
they went off to their beds
And dreamed of being healthy
And not needing meds.

They rode bikes and scooters
and jogged in the Fall
Took out the kids
For a game of football

Went picnicking, camping
Swam in the stream
But then they awoke
It was only a dream

Out came the Excedrin
Out came the Aleve
But wait! A whisper
Hard to believe!

A calling
Quiet at first
Then louder and louder
As if the sky burst!

A saint? An apostle?
Can’t make a decision
Some sort of salvation
Of undetermined religion

“Come out all you Lymies
If you don’t you’ll regret
Tonight is a night
You’ll never forget”

Lights on, out they stumbled
With sleep in their eyes
Unhooked their I.V.s
And looked to the skies

There was Frank, there was Julie
Annie, Barb too
Lovey and Georgia
And from New Jersey, Sue

There was Brite and Kathleen
MisTick and her brood
Eva and Norm
(He’s a real cool dude!)

I saw Kay, Bryan, Amy
And Sarah, and Art
And Joel, and others
All waiting to start

“Look what I’ve brought
You won’t be dismayed
You all have insurance
Your bills are all paid

“An extended vacation
For the O.P.M.C.
And freedom to practice
For all L.L.M.D.s

So forget swollen knees
Your future’s secure
We’ve killed Lyme disease
I brought you the cure!

And there’s no more Ehrlichia
So each little tick
Will still be disgusting
But it won’t make you sick.

Next morning was painless
Out in the sun
They did all the things
They missed, that were fun

Now they still talk on the ‘net
But their love is enough
And instead of disease
They just talk about stuff.

Bob reports that his health is much better these days, he goes to the gym three times a week and can “just talk about stuff” with his friends. I wish the same for all of my readers. Health and peace in 2012.

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s VP for Education and Outreach. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.