Unending Night Poem by Margaret Alice

Another sleepless night, awake with the allergy,
feverish, head stuffed with cotton-wool, painful,
reaching the end of all my good intentions - the
preparations to remain as peaceful, as sane as
possible – are coming to naught, after contem-
plating living encouragingly and meditating on
what it means to live lovingly, I give up and give
in, the fever is more than I can combat tonight,
what the devil does the restaurant at Augrabies
put in their food that puts me through hell when
I take a bite? I tasted a small piece of bokkoms
(dried fish) yesterday, that’s true, but last night
I slept rather well, whereas tonight I haven’t
been able to close my eyes, it’s all very well
trying to learn endurance and grow spiritually
through hardship and discomfort; but I give up,
the fever’s too much, I can’t continue the good
fight any more, I honestly admit to myself that
I’ve reached the end of my tether, symptomatic
relief was not reached in any way, I’m ready to
cry through the rest of this unending night...