iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The sheer time one must suffer this illness, one of its many cruelties. Let alone all that passes you by — your old life, friends and hobbies that disappear, milestones, bring more grief than celebration — as you wait for improvements that may never come to be. #mecfs #longcovid #pwme #severeme

ID: Yearning

Three-plus years
bedbound
my mind ground
like sea to rock
to grains of sand
wind whisks away

alone in the dark
I silently sit
on knife’s edge
of now
that may be
forever

and I write to etch
outside of skin
the shape
of my voice
yearning
to be found.

041

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Haven’t posted in a while. Been too sick. More to come, at my pace, as I can. #severeme #mecfs #pwme #bedbound #meawarenesmonth

Sunbathing
Snake

Must not hurry,
they say to pace,
but my mind confined
is prone to race,
can’t erase the thought
the years one breath
shaved off my life.
And so as I wither away
and the world walks by
I whisper aloud so
my voice is heard
if only by me:
imagine
you are the snake
misunderstood,
emerging from
your den,
bathing on a
sun-warmed rock,
risking the hawk
to be seen, for
what’s silenced,
eclipsed by your
shadow too long
slowly eats
you too.

011

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

#MEAction Network @meactnet.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

We were asked to share this fundraiser for a #pwME. Tim needs help paying for treatments and the specialized transport needed to receive the treatment #SevereME #MECFS #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #MutualAid Please see our policy here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

1127

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

#MEAction Network @meactnet.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Attention caregivers! You are invited to join our ME Caregivers Support Call on the 3rd Saturday of the month- June 20th at 1:30 pm ET. All caregivers of people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), Long COVID, and associated conditions are welcome! ow.ly/eeGO50ZcvKN #Caregiver #MECFS

Two hands (one set of hands is brown and the single hand they are clasping is deep brown) gently clasped together symbolizing support. Text: ME caregivers support call 3rd Saturday of the month 1:30 to 3:30 pm ET. For caregivers of people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), Long COVID, and associated conditions. https://www.meaction.net/event-list

0148

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

For 8 years, I worked as a civil rights attorney. After one COVID infection, I’ve spent the past 3.5 years bedbound with ME. We need help paying for two upcoming treatments. These are my last, best chance at getting my life back. You can read more: gofund.me/43edfb712

A man smiling in a green suit, with a forest in the background. Another photo of the same man smiling on a sunny day with mountains in the background.
Another photo of the same man with his wife, dancing with dappled light in the background.

095

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

Sean Mullen, Ph.D. @drseanmullen.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

We tolerate indoor air in 2026 that would have horrified sanitation engineers in 1926. We just don’t see what’s killing us.

516944

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

emily fraser 🌿🐌✨ @emilyesfraser.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Tens of millions of people around the world are in this situation, & most with far fewer privileges than the “best case scenario.” Myalgic Encephalomyelitis rates increased 15x due to Covid. When the government says Covid is mild, remember they’re not footing the bill.

1174

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

Pillow Writers @pillowwriters.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

#MECFS Stop and give us a wave if like us you’re reading this in bed. ME/CFS awareness day is heartbreaking. So many of us alone and isolated. We send our 🩵 to you all.

93510

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

This poem speaks to the immense losses and grief of ME and Long COVID, that all but snuff out last embers of dreams. And to dreams still faintly burning. #MECFS #LongCovid #pwME #poetry #disabledpoet #millionsmissing #bedbound

ID: Missing

I know most of me has gone
missing. I feel parts of me slip
beyond my grasp each day.
Brain fog cuts sentences
to confused silences.

But I am still here. Even if
some days just faintly
breathing behind a thin cage
of skin, waiting, dreaming,
dreaming of being me, again.]

26020

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

This poem from Wildness Unafraid is to the many animals who die at the hands of capitalism, often ignored or unnoticed, but with a family waiting for the return that will never come home. #wildnessunafraid #capitalismkills #ecopoetry #crows #poetry #naturepoetry

Crow Funeral
Taking out the trash one morning,
I see a mound of black feathers
and a sharp beak pointed downwards,
claws limp on the ground,
in the grass just by the street.
Above them, a telephone pole wire.
On the ground, surrounding
the fallen bird, a dozen or so crows
all cawing loudly, calling
with their whole bodies bobbing,
a cacophony of sound
spiraling upwards.
I stood transfixed.
Unsure what I was witnessing
I came to sense my presence
may be a disturbance.
After a few moments,
I let them be. And I thought
to myself as I walked
slowly away, that at least
even in death,
the fallen crow
was not alone.

195

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

PEM hell, Day 2: caused by smallest overexertion. Feels so similar to the day after a concussion that it haunts me. No stimulation. No exertion. Just lay in the dark. Nauseous. Dazed. Shattered all over again. Must tread lightly on the way back. And watch each step. #LongCovid #PEM #pwME #MECFS

2180

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

A sneak peak at the name sake poem. This collection seeks to not only honor all living beings with admiration, but to protect them from the parts of ourselves that endanger them. Buy your copy of Wildness Unafraid - link in bio! #ecopoetry #wildnessunafraid #poetry #poems #climatecrisis #poem

1112

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

From the back cover book reviews, thank you to Dr. Margaret Noodin, Khairani Barokka, and @aaronlelito for the generous praise of Wildness Unafraid. Your words spark life and curiosity into the book, and are very much appreciated. #ecopoetry #poetry #margaretnoodin #wildnessunafraid #poems

A cream colored back cover of a book with books reviews:

“In Wildness Unafraid, Tim Murphy sows seeds that will grow in those souls who listen . . . and in the winds beyond reach of human ways. Murphy offers lessons on being wholly present and connected to the edge of the water, the hunt of the heron, the critique of crows, the anxiety of squirrels and the relationship geese maintain with the sky. He doesn’t write about nature, he writes for nature, and that is the difference which makes his work worth reading.”

— Maragaret Noodin, Professor in English and American Indian studies at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukie, and author of What the Chickadee Knows

“Tim Murphy’s poems are thoughtful meditations on the wisdoms and beauties of the natural world, ‘of the many lives beyond our own / always unfolding, always near.’ Probing at any false ideals of colonial human superiority, of the ableism many humans cling to, and expanding on the complexities of the non-human with a quiet, measured touch—as the reader spends slow time with Murphy’s verse, ‘a knowing grows.’”

— Khairani Barokka, author of Ultimatum Orangutan andIndigenous Species

“Tim Murphy’s poems occupy the quiet places within our lives — the crows that “nose
through our trash,” the crickets’ call that “reminds us we’re not alone.” In this collection, Murphy pursues the multitude of connection points between the more-than-human world and our 21st century artifices. ‘I think of the many / cages we forge / from beauty / that ensnare / more than just us.’ These poems show the author’s deep appreciation for our humanity, even in an era of environmental crisis.”

— Aaron Lelito, Editor in Chief of Wild Roof Journal

050

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

My new poetry collection, Wildness Unafraid, is officially out! Can buy on Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Kelsay Books. It tracks the beauty and wonder of the world in the age of climate crisis. #poetry #ecopetry #naturepoetry #poems

[ID: A dark blue book cover that reads Wildness Unafraid at top. A picture of a Raven watching a beautiful orange and purple sunrise from a tree perch with stars and the moon still in sight. At the bottom of the book cover it says poems and Tim Murphy].

382

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

C.H. Romatowski @chromatowski.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

For my fellow very severely affected members of #NEISvoid, I appreciated seeing this today; maybe you will too.

Tweet from a tired human @saffronandsky

If you are ever hard on yourself for not being able to manage very severe ME or long covid better remember this, you are enduring one of the most difficult things a human can experience. Maybe not *the* most, for there are many terrible things, but to be sure, one of the most difficult.

3:04 PM • Dec 11, 2025 • 237 Views

1214

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Excited to reveal the cover for my poetry book, Wildness Unafraid! Tentatively set to be released this spring. #poetry #naturepoetry #ecopoetry Artwork by @cranesuperior

[ID: A dark blue book cover that reads Wildness Unafraid at top. A picture of a Raven watching a sunrise from a tree with stars and the moon still in sight. At the bottom of the book cover it says poems and Tim Murphy].

2103

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · 16/10/2025

Long Covid Is Real — And It’s Changing an Entire Generation Hundreds of thousands of kids in America are struggling with an illness that many doctors and schools refuse to recognize.e Feature: www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

281203594

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

A poem for a season that better matches my mood and life. #LongCovid #mecfs #pwme

Welcome Autumn

Birdless skies become
but another ceiling just painted
blue, or mostly gray, come autumn.
The change of seasons noticed
by the shift in pitch of darkness.
Fall gives an excuse to do
what I always do, sit
with a blanket in bed, hoping
this will not be forever,
but this time with a softness
that holds me, that follows
this restful time of year,
the kind of softness I yearn for
in summer but rarely find
in its unrelenting bright, hot days.

094

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

Epistemic Literary- Read Issue 8: Righteous Rage now! @epistemiclit.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

More awards! Congratulations to our @genrepunkmag.bsky.social awards nominees! @haleydirenzo.bsky.social @jameslilliefors.bsky.social @gretchenfilart.bsky.social Allison Zaczynski @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social Arti Jain Chelsea Allen Mac Carey Luis Lopez Galan

GENREPUNK AWARD NOMINATIONS

EDITOR'S CHOICE
HALEY DIRENZO | UPENDING THE GARDEN
JAMES LILLIEFORS | THERE WILL BE WARNINGS
GRETCHEN FILART | GARDENING DURING A DEPRESSIVE EPISODE

DISABLED CREATIVES
ALLISON ZACZYNSKI | ISOLATION
TIM MURPHY | FOR THESE BRIEF MOMENTS

WILDCARD
ARTI JAIN | OF SONGS, THRESHOLDS, AND SLIPPERS

HAUNTING
CHELSEA ALLEN | SMOKE TRAILS
MAC CAREY | LAST LIGHT
LUIS LOPEZ GALAN | DIGNITY

1112

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Today is Severe ME Day. A poem imagining a world free of the ableism that compounds the trauma of this dreaded illness. #SevereMEday #pwME #MECFS #SevereME #ableism #bedbound

Like a Fallen Feather

What if the ableism
heaped higher
the sicker we become,
figments of a
poisoned imagination
suffocating our own,
this anchor of shame
not ours to carry,
what if
– for even just this moment –
we released it completely?

What if we could hold
the disabled parts of ourselves
in our own two hands
the way one holds a fallen feather?

Its soft, delicate lightness
born on this wing to rise or
when wounded to rest
in the warm shelter of the nest
as long as need be, dreaming
of the demise of a culture
that wishes, quickens our own,
reborn as a community of care,
where pain is seen and tended,
not hidden and held alone,
where the body is not a tool
but a keeper of wisdom
not meant to die
untold, unheard.

1238

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

The genocide and forced starvation in Gaza is indefensible. It’s ethnic cleansing in plain view. #freepalestine #endthegenocide @bobbylefebre.bsky.social

Israel is starving Gaza.

Line is repeated over and over again on an off white colored background, in typewriter font.

030

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Long COVID anniversary on our anniversary. A day of grief with shadows of joy. The impossible lives disabled people are expected to live. #LongCOVID #MECFS #severeME #beebound #poetry #grief

[ID: What If

What if the happiest day of your life melted,
dissolved backwards in time to become
the day from which you may never recover?

What if the moment that was yours became
a kettle left on the burner too long,
too hot for memory to touch?

What if we lived in a world where disabilities
were honored before doubted? Where those
most sick were protected by those closest to them?

Instead, I lie in bed, think the same thought
that has no beginning nor end.
Just a breath I took one day
I’ll never know which one.
Just a breath I took one day
given to me by someone.]

1235

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

New poem in Bed Zine. The loss of meaningful connection to nature is amongst the cruelest parts of this illness. #LongCovid #MECFS #Bedbound #SevereME

[ID: A poem titled “Severed”

Severed
Exiled
by a living
death disease,
to a bed
where trees
go unseen,
waves of wind
unfelt,
birdsong
unheard.
Even silence rings
in my ears
like howling
grief echoes
in this cave
so dark
I mistake
its walls
for skin.]

1134

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

I’m excited to announce my debut poetry collection, “Wildness Unafraid,” has been accepted for publication! I’ll post more details as the release date gets closer. #poetry #ecopoetry #poetrycommunity #ecojustice

030

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

A new poem in @hootreview about the constant, unwinding grief and loss of being indefinitely ill during a pandemic so few still observe. #LongCovid #chronicillness #grief #mecfs #pwme

[ID: A poem titled “Unhurried”

Grieve
as the snail slides
unhurried
yet everywhere
they must reach
they find.

Grieve
as the snail glides
unbothered
by expectations of time
their pace as protective
as their shell.

282

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

A poem about surviving this torturous illness — by protecting dreams, finding our voice, and maintaining whatever connection we can to the outer world. #LongCovid #pwME #MECFS #SevereME #disability #poem #poetry

How Sparrows Sing

Even bedbound
and splintered
I know I can’t stay
hidden forever.

I have little choice
even if unseen
must find again
my voice

and remember
remember how
sparrows sing
through coldest

heart of winter
as we dream
through darkest
hours of night.

093

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

Miles W. Griffis @mileswgriffis.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

"The Severe....recognize the depths of the pit of horror that the Very Severe may find themselves stuck in...yet by leaning over to lend a hand, we risk falling further into the quicksand ourselves." Vital op-ed by Sam Pearce in @thesicktimes.bsky.social thesicktimes.org/2025/04/04/a...

thesicktimes.org

An international emergency task force is urgently needed for Severe Long COVID and ME crisis cases - The Sick Times

Without one, Severe advocates are putting themselves at risk. It’s time for advocacy organizations to step up. Writer’s note: In this essay, I deliberately capitalize different categories of ME in ord...

0228

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

A poem appearing in the Tiger Moth Review, about a heron I came to know before becoming bedbound, about our tenuous relationship to disability and the more than human world. #poetry #naturepoetry #ecopoetry #disability #ecojustice #heron

[ID: A poem titled, Broken-Winged Heron

At a small, wooded pond
near where I live dwells
a broken-winged heron.
He does not exist
to inspire wonder,
though wonder
he inspires.

He possesses only himself,
not pushing parts away
to be whole or belong
to something larger,
for only one species insists
disability must be fixed
or assigned perpetual shame.

No, the heron does not write
dreams in the night
of his wing mended
but of the hunt that feeds him,
comforts of nest that hold him,
dangers he must ever know
that breathe him into being.

Encased in these walls,
I still dream of that heron,
still hope we meet again
someday, must believe
the beautiful creature is still
alive, as well as one can be
amidst unsettling times.]

280

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

Dr Elisa Perego @elisaperego78.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

The Covid pandemic isn't over. Almost 1,000 people died from Covid last week in the US alone. Given the lack of testing and surveillance, the real number might be much higher. And an estimated 400 millions have or had Long Covid worldwide

320071

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

This is what eugenics looks like. Literally banning disabled people from safely existing.

021

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

As Israel and the US break the ceasefire yet again, a poem of mine that appeared in “Songs of Revolution.” The poem is sadly as relevant now as when it was written - at the beginning of this endless genocide. #freepalestine #armsembargo #landback #endapartheid #permanentceasefirenow

A book titled “Songs of Revolution” with a picture of a watermelon sliced open lying on a plate.

Bombed Away on Our Dime
by TIM MURPHY So many casually cheering for a genocide, so many others floating in a sea of their own silence, apathy that drowns another's humanity,
their right to live, makes anything, everything the war machine wants socially acceptable,
even rewarded. Like we learned in school
just manifest
our destiny, the end.
The end, no matter the means. Thousands of endings written from beginnings, no middle, no joyful last moments of innocence lost on their own terms, no chance at a life
beyond their youth
bombed away on our dime.

092

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

On Long COVID Awareness Day, a poem reflecting on the limits of awareness alone when not coupled with care. #LongCovid #LongCovidAwarenessDay #pwME #MECFS #ableism #disability

A poem titled “Long COVID Awareness Day”

When your world shrinks
to this size, most days
feel less than alive,
and you’re forced
to wonder, who
is really not aware
of this disease, and who
simply doesn’t care?

03713

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

Kristin Houlihan, Writer @kristinwrites.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

You know that feeling when you desperately want someone to get it, but they just…don’t? #Disability #LongCovid #MECFS

0251

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

As our government scrubs #LongCOVID from collective memory, a poem about what is happening to us. #pwME #MECFS #ableism #disabilityjustice #millionsmissing #poetry #poem #pandemic

A poem titled, Into Cement

Disabled people didn’t cement
their own demise. We were
trampled just as we tried
to stand, stuck as it dried
pavement to skin,
flattened by the
stampede back
to the normal,
killing us
all along.

13514

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

A mourning poem for the 5 year anniversary. For all the avoidable deaths and the countless lives that, like mine, avoidably, were made to disappear in the dark. #LongCovid #MECFS #pwME #SevereME #pandemic #ableism #eugenics #CDCkills

ID: A poem titled “Endless’”

Long Covid,
what you call
a disease when
all you know is
it may never end
like this pandemic,
like this pandemic
we rendered endless
by declaring over
too soon.

1267

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Long COVID Awareness Month. Year 5 of the pandemic. A poem about the casual eugenics that, with each passing day, become more and more socially acceptable. #LongCovid #millionsmissing #MECFS #pwME #disabilityjustice #ableism #eugenics #nothingaboutuswithoutus

ID: How a Virus Killed So Many People

The truth we swallow
without tasting bitterness
is that most people don’t care
if others die – too preoccupied
with survival or themselves –
they’ve grown numb to it,
only care who died and how.

And if the killer is not one
with whom we wage war,
not even one we can see,
it can be said to not exist at all,
no matter how many people
it makes disappear.

0187

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

Miles W. Griffis @mileswgriffis.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

NEW: Millions will observe half a decade of #LongCOVID this year as the ongoing pandemic turns five. For @thesicktimes.bsky.social, I wrote about the courage of millions of pwLC who have led the way in the face of so much willful indifference, cruelty, and denial. thesicktimes.org/2025/03/07/h...

thesicktimes.org

Half a decade of Long COVID - The Sick Times

Looking back on half a decade, there have been numerous milestones in Long COVID research, advocacy, and greater societal awareness, many led by people with the disease. There has also been, and conti...

421577

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

Whitney Dafoe @whitneydafoe.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

I wonder how many people have ever experienced their brain physically running out of energy making it so they cannot use their mind and have to lie still, unthinking, unfeeling - merely existing in a body. This I believe is a torture no one but #MECFS patients understand.

1012240

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

A poem in the latest issue of Kaleidoscope, contemplating the way this illness forever changes you. #LongCovid #MECFS #pwME #poetry #chronicillness

Poem titled, “Puddle Left by the Storm”

If I can do this,
so can you.
But neither of us
should have to.

If you can survive
this disease,
you can live
through anything.

But survive
to what end?
For if someday
you walk free

from the grip
of its symptoms,
as you glimpse
a reflection

in the puddle
left by this storm:
who
would you see?

0165

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

Brian Fog @uselesspriest.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

ME, whether acquired after COVID or not, is about watching - with perfect discipline and minimal emotion - your life drift away in slow motion.

711528

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

Mistress Maeve Genesis Bowman @clintonbowmanchristie.com · 23/02/2025

Activism that ignores disabled people isn’t activism—it’s exclusion. If your movement doesn’t account for accessibility, survival needs, and systemic barriers, it’s leaving people behind. Disability justice is and must be non-negotiable. #DisabilityJustice #AccessIsLove #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs

316357

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

A poem about how certain illnesses are viewed. About the pain of watching as people see us bedbound yet refuse to see the illness that renders us in this state to begin with. #LongCovid #pwME #MECFS #Ableism #DisabilityJustice #MillionsMissing

A poem titled “In Plain Sight”

In Plain Sight

Maybe there’s no distinction
between visible
and invisible illnesses.
Maybe we simply choose
which ones to see.
Like how we avert our gaze
from millions sick
with a virus we cannot see
but know follows us,
spready so casually
one could almost mistake
all of this carnage as inevitable.

194

Reposted by brokenwingpoet

C.H. Romatowski @chromatowski.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

NIH recently found 1 in 22 ppl who’d had Covid developed ME/CFS. The “mild” form of that disease, as @julialmv.bsky.social’s graph shows, means losing capacity to do 50% of your daily activities. What would you give up? Friends? Time w/your kids? Could you cut work hours in half w/o losing yr job?

A stacked bar chart (oriented horizontally) labeled: Living with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome)

Each horizontal bar is a disease status: Pre-ME, Mild ME, Moderate ME, Severe ME, Very Severe ME.

The width of each bar represents how much energy is available in each status (100, 50, 25, 12.5, and 6.25 respectively).

Each bar is divided into sections for how one might allocate their energy: hygiene & nutrition (gray); caregiving, cleaning errands (red); work (orange); exercise (yellow); friends (green); hobbies (blue); fun (purple).

With worsening ME, the hygiene & nutrition takes up a larger proportion of total available energy and the amount of energy available for all other parts of life shrinks.

Mild ME has most things cut in half, with exercise cut smaller.

Moderate ME removes exercise altogether, and everything else shrinks.

Severe ME has only tiny slivers of red, orange, green, blue and purple.

Very Severe ME has only a tiny sliver of green.

22376189

brokenwingpoet @brokenwingpoet.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Just shows the enormity of this illness, and the chasm between what’s needed for treatment and the crumbs we’ve been given.

120