Chronic Illness, Party of One by Shilo Niziolek
I am in the backyard examining the bright orange and yellow underbelly of the heart rot mushroom, chicken of the woods, growing at the center of the cherry blossom that, very shortly, will no longer watch over us outside the bedroom window as we sleep when it hits me that nearly everything I experience, I experience alone. This comes on the heels of a week spent rotating between my office, where I’m teaching an online class; the bathroom, where I spend more time than I would