Saturday, April 24, 2010

His Cancer, Our Cancer

Hands crossed across the chest
Eyes closed with quiet distress
Mind firing rapidly memories of the past.
What does he dream as he exists
Between time and space?

Today is yesterday,
Yesterday is ten years ago,
Tomorrow is another reality
Fabricated by criss-cross synapses
Turning his thoughts upside-down
Inside-out, side to side.

What is real to him is not real to me
Then what does life really mean?

Cancer digs its claws deep into the flesh
Taking over the breathing corpse.
Who rests behind these crusted eyelids?
At times it is the father, the husband
At times it is a child-like man.

His wife works diligently to assist in his existence,
He comforts her with subtle praise.
Every minute she is reminded of what she has lost
He forgets she was there, and fears when she is gone.

The cruelty of brain cancer should be a federal crime,
Sentenced to the death penalty.
The disease has no conscious; spreading
Injustice as it grows
Taking place of any judge who would never
Declare this man life without parole.

Life is unfair.
Life is beyond clear.
Life is undefined.
Cancer's barbarity contaminates
All in its path.
His cancer is our cancer.
Tears fall incessantly.


No comments:

Post a Comment

I welcome any thoughts...