Flying pain
===========

* Germán Añez

*   arthritis
*   pain
*   chikungunya virus
*   mosquito-borne virus

## To the memory of Dr Américo Negrette

> Serendipitously, unsolicited, unwelcomed,
> 
> with an imperceptible bite,
> 
> an odious tropical needle brings tiny pieces of you,
> 
> soulless machine.
> 
> You bring heat to our flesh,
> 
> you make us feel the deepest pain,
> 
> you rust and force to cry our joints,
> 
> you crush our fingers and hands,
> 
> neck and knees,
> 
> feet and toes.

> You malignantly make our skin shout,
> 
> red islands come to signal the fight;
> 
> –the struggle between the white army that lives inside us–
> 
> and you –miniscule mass of amino acidic hordes–
> 
> protecting an elemental particle of live.

> We do not want to move,
> 
> we want to be lying,
> 
> you want to bend us,
> 
> you want us immobile, frozen, lifeless.
> 
> We, poor and needed,
> 
> you tiny and guiltless,
> 
> we both, victims.
> 
> Hands, knees, toes.

> Many moons last your visit.
> 
> Many more last your act.
> 
> The painful reminder that you came one day,
> 
> to rebelliously stay,
> 
> to make us voice your exotic name:
> 
> Chikungunya.

## Footnotes

*   Competing interests None.

*   Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.