Ode to Apple & Eve juice boxes for keeping blood glucose from tanking
Because it weighs more
than 4 ounces
the juice box gets confiscated
in Airport Security
like lighter fluid, or
a switchblade.
But on my nightstand
the Tetra Pak is safety itself.
Bert & Ernie part
their felted mouths,
and charmingly show their tongues.
When I need it
I find the straw, harpoon
the foil fleck and swallow
mixed berry calories
until
everything’s A-Okay.
Until the air is sweet
and so am I
(but just sweet enough).
My wild-haired pals come through.
They tell me how to get
how to get here
every time.
Author’s Note
What does a poem about glucose management referencing the Sesame Street theme song have to do with hematology? Immune responses gone haywire are found in plenty of hematologic disorders. Reading about a pancreatic islet cell transplant and blood stem cell transplant curing or preventing mice with Type 1 diabetes, for example, reminded me of this overlapping. In addition, Stanford researchers are looking at a pre-conditioning approach to stem-cell treatment (Conger, 2025).
Conger, K. (2025, November 18). Stanford scientists cure diabetes in mice with increasingly gentle pre-transplant treatment. Stanford Medicine News Center. https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/11/type-1-diabetes-cure.html
Guiding Questions
Consider the following questions after reading the poem:
- How is the juice box framed in the poem? What might this framing suggest about the important but often overlooked resources that many patients rely on to take care of themselves?
- What does the poem reveal about the lived, moment‑to‑moment experience of managing blood sugar? What forms of invisible labor come up in the poem in reference to living with a chronic condition?
- How does the speaker take ownership of their own care? How might healthcare providers better recognize and/or support patient agency and self-care?
- How does the poem’s humor and character references challenge assumptions about illness?
About the Author
Katy Giebenhain is interested in all forms of art that engage with the topic of access to medicines. She is part of a narrative medicine group in the healthcare system she works for. Her poems have appeared in Pittsburgh Quarterly, American Journal of Nursing, Poetry Wales, Keystone Poetry: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania, The Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation, and elsewhere. Learn more at www.katygiebenhain.com.
