Child Of       by Erin M. Akers

I am a child of sickness
of cold hospitals with even colder doctors
Who see me as a number on a chart,
not a person, not a soul.

I am a child with a heart rate
not heart break or a big heart,
but a too fast –sometimes irregular
heart rate.

I am not a child of swing sets or
merry go rounds. Though pictures say
I was, I do not
remember those days.

I am a child who could tell you
a target blood pressure range. But
not what it means to fall in love,
or dance at my prom.

I am a child of sickness:
of diabetes,  gastroparesis, && neuropathy.
A child who was kept alive, but
often times was not living at all.