when I google ‘does SAPHO syndrome refer to the poet Sappho’
not one girl I think
who looks on the light of the sun
will ever
have wisdom
like this
my disease is an acrostic:
Synovitis
Acne
Pustulosis
Hyperostosis
Osteitis
in plain language:
skin bone & joint inflammation
no known cure
no known cause
Sappho: an archaic Greek poet & lyricist
SAPHO syndrome: a relapsing-remitting illness
little is known of either
researchers could have ordered the letters any other way:
PHASO
HOPAS
OPSAH
but chose the poetess’s name minus one letter
adding a p for psoriatic would complete the allusion
only one of Sappho’s poems survives in full —
all we have left are her ancient remains
my rheumatology report also reads like poetic fragments:
bone marrow edema
flowing syndesmophytes
bilateral sacroiliac fusion
enhancement of the perineural space
my radiology images are works of art:
my bone scan — Abstract of Steer —
a mixed media piece wherein
illuminated sternoclavicular joints
echo the head & horns of an ox
my mri — Still Life with Bamboo —
a smudged charcoal on paper
of a weathered & broken spine
each x-ray is a coil clay cylinder
entitled Bone Trees Bending in Wind
Plato called Sappho the tenth muse
the mortal muse
fallible like all of us
living with an immortal illness
is to grieve every day
the potential of a life out of reach
as Sappho suggests: suffering walks in front of wisdom —
a remnant as we pass through pain
I traded my health for a torch to see the world
though the choice wasn’t mine —
I chose firelight
I taught my pain to speak in elegiacs
and taught myself to listen
like Sappho’s words found on scraps of papyrus
poetry arrives in strange places
especially in aging — every year is a love poem
or a clinical trial or a husband who sticks around
or the rare silence between flares
when I almost forget the letters I was assigned
The epigraph for “when I google ‘does SAPHO syndrome refer to the poet Sappho?’” is a fragment by Sappho translated from the original Aeolic Greek by Anne Carson in If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho. The poem also references a journal article entitled, "The SAPHO Syndrome, But Watch the Spelling." Orthopedics, 26(1), pp. 19–20.
