Dry?

Dries you up quick, pain does, and then I think of
a writer like Hubert Selby Jr.
who lived most days in pain and sickness or
addiction, with its' specialized brand of pain and sickness,
and yet he got it down on paper so beautifully
saw it, felt it, said it - clearly, so you could feel it too,
and somehow at the same time it seemed as though
he could see beyond all that darkness, and
so I am just a blubbering little kid lying here
on muscle relaxers and a heating pad