In Defense of Pain: A Reminder

Betsy Joseph

April 30, 2023

Three days post-op,

and not on vacation, sadly,

I am a pilgrim on a journey nonetheless.

A fellow sojourner, Pain, accompanies me—

a true thorn in my side—

and I pray he departs sooner rather than later.

His tirades have grown tiresome,

his barbs and jabs insincere.

Yet while an unwelcome presence in my life,

we will not remain companions for long

for he has other destinations to reach

and I have a pilgrimage to complete:

Healing.

Time with companion Pain has reminded me

of what I so often forget:

good health is not monotonous,

it certainly is not mundane.

It is the most quiet of blessings

and likely to go unappreciated

until it quits our side,

leaving us to feel like a tourist in our own bones.

Betsy Joseph lives in Dallas and has poems that have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. She is the author of two poetry books published by Lamar University Literary Press: Only So Many Autumns (2019) and most recently, Relatively Speaking (2022), a collaborative collection with her brother, poet Chip Dameron. In addition, she and her husband, photographer Bruce Jordan, have produced two books, Benches and Lighthouses, which pair her haiku with his black and white photography.