Beta Cell

Jim Natal was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 30 years old in 1978. 38 years later, he still struggles with maintaining the balance between controlling his diabetes and leading a fulfilling life without worrying about every high or low blood sugar. In his first book of poetry, In the Bee Trees, he shares the story of his diagnosis:Learning To Live With ItBarbara taught me to give injections to an orange, thick pop of penetration through the skin, short smooth glide into soft tissue under. Slowly, with control, push down on the plunger, and quick backward dart toss, remove the syringe. I practiced in her office, still dazed from diagnosis, seeing through pinpoint pupils, eyes after a strobe flash. Stretched like surgical tubing colorless with tension, I was renamed after a disease, time now measured in gleaming needle pricks, insulin units, blood sugar levels. My wife sobbed in the car parked beneath the medical building, rusty pipes wrapped and painted white, strung along the oppressive ceiling. She cried b