It seems to be the topic today so here is my poem about cancer. It is mostly about my mother’s experience but also about cancer itself. I started to wonder how strange it is that “cancer” if it can be thought of as a thing works so hard to get rid of it’s host and thereby kills itself in the process. So I wrote a poem from the viewpoint of “the cancer” called Patients. It was originally published last month on my blog at: http://bloggernorm.blogspot.com/2012/05/patients.html

---

     Hello.

     I am here ... patient.
     I am here and I - am - patience.
     I am as patient as bedrock and black and silence.
I.   I am here... and you are not very patient.
     You are life.
     You are motion and energy and noise.

     You are life and you - are - oblivious.

     I am growing ... my patient.
     I am growing so slowly.
     Slowly like trees and canyons and space.
II.  I am growing...and you are slowing.
     You are still life but...
     You are wondering and wheezing and denying.

     You are wondering and you - are - fear. 

     I have exploded ... patient.
     I have exploded and I - am - rapacious.
     I am operating and gorging and mutating.
III. I am exploding ... and you are fighting.
     You are hope.
     You are chemicals and beams and invocations.

     You are hope and we - are - patients.

     We are tired ... fellow patient.
     We are tired and we - are - waiting.
     Waiting for relief and peace and closure.
IV.  I am here ... and we are inseverable.
     We linger.
     We are silence and acquiescence and patience.

     We linger and we - are - gone.

     Goodbye.

(c) 2012 Norman Dziedzic Jr.