No Man is an Islet

Speaking of the bell toll of mortality,
Donne proclaimed no man an island.

"Every man's death diminishes me
because I am a part of mankind."

I was not.

I danced in the ether,
swabbed and prepped and ready for piercing.

I drank moonlight through juice box straws,
awoken from sleep in trembled panics.

I rode the waves of high and low like a carnival ride you can't disembark,
the thousandth trip rocking your body one hit too hard.

I dogpaddled breathlessly in an a-1-sea,
treading band-aid-smelling, fast-acting waters.

When something of a dream came floating past.
Thousands of broken beta cells, each with a story.

They reached out and grabbed my hand,
disrupting my soliloquy.

Seeking relief, support,
an answer, a friend, a cure.

We each struggle with the undertow,
but together ride the crests and falls.

Thousands of lancetted hands,
clasped together in friendship.