Tracy (front) and her sister riding Lightning,1972
An image flickers like an old home movie across the screen.  
A young girl stands by an open fridge door drinking thirstily from a large bottle of Passiona.  A woman, her mother, appears in the background and chastises her daughter for drinking too much soft drink.  Too much Passiona.  Always Passiona.

"Drink water," the child's mother says.
But the child doesn't stop. 

Images flicker alternately between the child vomiting violently, and drinking from the bottle of Passiona, before vomiting again.  The child becomes thinner and thinner.  
Images of the wasting child flicker faster until she is nothing but a wisp of fetid Passiona air,  translucent and ephemeral as she drifts in and out of consciousness.

When I was a small girl, I lived on a rural property on the outskirts of Sydney. Every week, the soft drink man would deliver a crate of syrupy, carbonated drinks to the property. They were supposed to be a treat, but I couldn’t get enough of them. My favourite was a passionfruit-flavoured fizzy called Passiona. In the 50 years since I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, I have always craved carbonated fizzy drinks on those rare occasions when my blood glucose levels have been seriously high. It is worth noting that I became a Type 1 diabetic in the months after I recovered from a serious bout of the measles. Isn’t it fortunate that there are now vaccines to protect against many serious viruses that can trigger our immune systems to go into hyper drive and attack our own bodies?

The (optional) task for Day 14 of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) is to write a poem/piece that takes the form of the opening scene of the movie of your life.

There’s more to this movie, but this is a start.

Take care, everyone.
Kind Regards.
Tracy.

NaPoWriMo #14
Ragtag Daily Prompt – Changeling

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27 thoughts on “Choose Your Own Poison”

  6. Almost halfway through this mad month of poetry! Congratulations!

    What a precious photo/memory of you & your sister. And what a creative & visceral piece surrounding Passiona.

    I am not a huge soft drinks person myself – but after a long run, I often want a tall cool fizzy beverage so I turn to juice mixed with soda water

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks, Ju-Lyn. I’m only dipping into the monthly poetry challenge when I don’t have to think about what I’m writing.
      Ordinarily, I’m not a fan of soft drink either. But when your pancreas is not producing insulin and you need that insulin to get energy into your cells, your cells start dying, and when your cells start dying, you produce massive amount of toxins which build up in your blood stream which poison you, so you need liquid to dilute those toxins, because they are killing you, but without the insulin, you die anyway. That’s how the biochemistry of ketoacidosis works. 😦

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      1. I think that’s such a sensible way to approach the challenges – to enjoy them as you please as opposed to feel stressed about meeting them all!

        Goodness! it is quite a conundrum … I see why you’ve always been so careful about your food/liquid intake. Appreciate your taking the time to explain it to me.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Your opening scene draws me in…well done. And yes to vaccines. Not nearly as serious as your situation, but I ended up having to wear glasses because of measles.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. This made me tear up! Last year the day my son collapsed from diabeticketoacidosis, he kept asking for something sweet to drink.
    He has received all his vaccinations yet always yes to vaccines!
    That is a cute photo. Was Lightning lightning fast! 😉

    Liked by 1 person

      1. No, Tracy, it’s okay. I find the more I talk about it, the more I am able to come to terms with it. Tears will flow but knowing I am not alone makes me feel less guilty, you know. Please do share.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. I’d never given a second thought to what measles could do beyond a week’s worth of spots, so have learned something from reading about it triggering your Type 1 diabetes.

    Liked by 2 people

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