With every cotton-picking...

fibre of my body...

I want it to work.

These days I couldn't even

pick cotton if I tried.

What is she on about this time?

My thumb.

I got to thinking as I rubbed

Capsicum/Rhus/Ruta

cream in...

Will it work?

I got to thinking as I gently poured three

powders under my tongue...

Will it work?

I got to thinking as twice

a day I sit like an inscrutable

Buddha while the tablets

'The Combination'

sit quietly dissolving on my tongue...

Will it work?

Idly I think at least the name

is apt, as these days I struggle to

even get my combinations pulled up.

I suppose in order for these potions to have any 

hope of working I need to believe.

And that's the rub...

I want to, I really, really do.

Call me a cynic and oh how right

you'd be, as past posts might give hint?

The pad of my right thumb is permanently

swollen and sore.

Even my doctor said

'Oh yes I've got arthritis in my finger and

don't worry the pain comes and goes!'

Er... mine doesn't, it is a constant

in my life.  Increasingly every thing I do

gives me a huge slug of misery.

I don't do drugs.

A friend said

'Take pain killers!'

'I don't do drugs!'

'Well, it obviously isn't that painful then!'

Dumbfounded my mouth opened and closed

a time or two... a goldfish would be proud.

I got to thinking...

Perhaps she's right!

But hang on, I know I've got a high-pain threshold.

  Perhaps it's the badness of me being such
 a contrary madam...

I deserve it?