Nonsense verse is the poet’s pressure valve — a place to play with the painful, mock the maddening, and giggle at what can’t be undone. For those of us navigating life with MS, there are odd sensations that defy explanation. Today’s verse shines a light on one such mischief-maker: dysesthesia — the mysterious impostor that tingles, burns, itches, and stabs without reason, rhyme… or permission.
The Dismal Tale of Dame Dysesthesia
Introduction to verse
Dysesthesia is the over-sensitive sibling of normal sensation — a rogue messenger in the nervous system, misinterpreting everyday signals as distress. For people with MS, it can feel like a sunburn that never happened, ants that aren’t there, or an electric current running through fabric. It doesn’t cause harm, but it sure causes alarm. The unpredictability of dysesthesia makes it ripe for nonsense, which offers not just comic relief, but perspective. In this verse, we follow the antics of a curious old dame who brings her own brand of prickly chaos.
Hypersensitive Verse
Dame Dysesthesia came to tea,
Wearing gloves made out of brie.
Her petticoat was spun from sand,
She offered me her lobster hand.
She sat upon a cactus chair,
And brushed her teeth with prickly pear.
She claimed, with pride, her hat was spun
From lightning bolts and bubblegum.
She danced upon my tender shin,
While playing kazoo with her chin.
“My touch,” she said, “is quite refined —
Like porcupines who've lost their mind!”
She served me toast with jagged spoons,
And hummed electric lullabies at noon.
She patted heads and pinched behinds,
And left confusion in our minds.
I begged her: “Please, go vex some bees!
Your company is a skin disease!”
But still she laughed and plumped my bed
With nettle-pods and wires of lead.
Reflection
Dysesthesia doesn’t show up on scans or leave visible marks, but its effects are unmistakable. It’s a disconcerting symptom — odd, irrational, and hard to describe. Like Dame Dysesthesia, it often makes itself at home without being invited. Some days, your clothes feel like sandpaper. Other days, the mere brush of a sleeve brings shivers or sparks. It can unsettle your sleep, ruin your focus, and shake your calm — yet it remains invisible to everyone else. And that’s where humour can help: nonsense verse gives voice to what can’t be seen or explained.
The following links may reveal more about my ongoing fight with the MonSter:
Dysesthesia can cause abnormal sensations that leave you questioning your sanity,
Conclusion
Managing MS means accepting that some symptoms — like dysesthesia — are as weird as they are unwelcome. You’re not imagining it, and you’re not alone. Whether it’s burning, crawling, zapping, or tingling, dysesthesia demands patience, adaptation, and a healthy dose of absurdity. This poem isn’t a cure, but it’s a chuckle-sized coping tool. When the nerves misfire, nonsense can rewire your mindset — just long enough to breathe, blink, or even smile.
So, next time Dame Dysesthesia calls unannounced, try meeting her with a rhyme instead of resistance. Her bags are full of nonsense. Yours can be full of resilience.
For more whimsical relief from life’s strange sensations, explore the full collection in Nonsense Verse: Joyful Gems for MS Minds.
Dysesthesia may be invisible to others, but its strange sensations are all too real — and turning them into nonsense verse helps reclaim control, one stanza at a time.
Whether it prickles like thistles or burns like fire, dysesthesia is a baffling part of MS — but through humour, verse, and shared experience, we can turn its strangeness into something oddly empowering.
Dysesthesia may turn socks into stings and sheets into shockwaves, but with a touch of nonsense and a dash of defiance, we can stop it ruling the narrative — and instead, rhyme our way through the griddle riddle.
We started this exciting, nonsensical journey from landing page for this section.
