I put it down to hay fever, but looking backwards, I’m wondering if it was something more serious. A consistent cough from about Friday lunchtime, which came to a head yesterday evening and then stopped as suddenly as it started. Massive levels of fatigue. There were aches and pains, and at certain points in the heat I was cold enough to have to put a top on.
With reflection, I’d argue I caught the Flu when out on Tuesday, and now I’m coming out of it. That’s absolutely what it felt like at its worst moments. Everything else was limped through. I should also absolutely have skipped Friday exercise, which just made things worse. Yesterday’s brain fog was off the charts bad, which is always what happens when my body is trying to recover after stuff.
This morning, lucidity has returned to both mind and body.
This morning I will do my best to catch up domestically (nobody has any underwear ^^) and then we will start the process of making some actual chapbook prototypes. I’ve watched enough YouTube and Instagram videos to be confident enough in the process. We’ll take photos along the way as well. The plan is to have some working chapbooks by Friday, and stuff to send to prizewinners at the weekend.
I can only thank people for their patience at this point, but considering the amount of random shit that has happened since the start of June, it is only to be expected. The shortlisting from Verve means that work’s now free to go somewhere else (I have ideas) but there will be no more proper poetry for a while. The last piece, which was written in response to something on
’s Substack, has been sent privately. It is too personal to share.When we come back, a lot might get written about trauma and grief.
This underwear emergency is not going to fix itself. Time to sort pants.