Cancer

Cancer creeps in on little cat’s feet

Cancer grows from the root upward

Cancer as a fact is a hard fact to grasp

Cancer wears no mask but hides in
private places

Cancer greedily drinks at the oasis meant for
healthy beasts and weary travelers

Cancer’s dark generosity knows no bounds

Cancer is that thing that once planted
can’t easily be got rid of except through
foreclosure or death

Cancer rides death’s black horse
but should be walking beside it

When cancer appears everything changes
as if death were drawing nearer
when it’s God drawing nearer

Cancer is a sown field full of
tares and rocks trying to

flourish at the farmer’s expense

Somehow there’s no sky above cancer
but only the closeness of a closed room
and a small expandable exit

that could become the sky

Cancer thinks its attitude is
our attitude but it
won’t get away with it

Cancer is a man in a blue blazer
waiting at the corner for a
man in a black trench coat but
when they meet the man in blue will
blaze and open up into a
night full of stars

Cancer clings like a monkey
sings like a drunken sailor
rings like a giant bronze bell
in the Pure Land of the Buddha

Cancer is the clearest indicator of
Who is in charge
that He might wipe it away
little by little

until we are clean again

or as never before

---

6/12/12 (from Down at the Deep End)

Categories: Poems, Cancer Treatment