My body betrays me every day
mid-May to mid-June
as a monsoon of pollen
from budding plants and leafing trees
attacks me respiratorily
with the relentless savagery
of a swarm of zombies
from some fantasy story.

I imagine my bewildered defenses
standing atop the castle walls
of my immune system, blinking
with reddened watery disbelieving eyes
at a swelling army of allergens...
and dropping their weapons
to run faster than my nose
in reckless retreat.
Stand and fight, you cowards!
I can hear my sinuses plead
before being overwhelmed.

Send in the antihistamines!
Launch the glucocorticoids!
Where the hell are my decongestants?
General Health demands of Corporal Well-being,
but it is too late, the battle is already lost
in fits of sneezing and wheezing,

and all I can do is shut my burning eyes
and wave white tissues of seasonal surrender
again and again and again.

© by Mike Orlock.
Used with the author’s permission.