The ALS has destroyed
the brain function
which controls them both
The result is
I start with laughing
and end with crying
Also
I can't control myself
I get a sad thought
and I cry and cry and cry
Now
right now
I'm crying
Another thing:
Mark Twain once said
he could live a whole month
on a compliment
I can't
I can handle insults
Better than compliments
Just leave me alone
when I cry
That's the best thing
you can do for me
Just dry my eyes
Tears contain
an irritant
[Al Klein, a retired lawyer and College of Marin instructor, was (too briefly) a student in the Adaptive P.E. Program after contracting Amyolateral Sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease). In an old file, I found a note he once laboriously typed to the staff, and it felt like a poem, so... --ed.]