Obedience

Pain has become a possessing spirit;

I live in fear of angering it,

kneeling, standing, shaking

according to its demands.

Does it thirst; does it hunger?

I attend to it with hot water and pills,

cushions and prostration.

I have bowed a thousand times to pain.

O deep ache,

let me sleep,

let me eat,

let me breathe.

I say I believe in no god,

but O how I worship to appease.