What You Realize When Cancer Comes
You will not live forever—
No you will not,
for a ceiling of clouds hovers in the sky.
You are not as brave as you once thought.
Sounds of death echo in your chest.
You feel the bite of pain,
the taste of it running through you.
Following the telling to friends
comes a silence of felt goodbyes.
You come to know the welling of tears.
Your children are stronger than you
thought and closer to your skin.
The beauty of animals birds on telephone
lines,dogs who look into your eyes,
all bring you peace.
You want no more confusion
than what already rises in your head and heart.

You watch television less,
will never read all those books,
much less the onesyou have.
Songs can move you now,
so that you want to hold onto the words
like the hands of children.
Your own hands look good to you.
old and familiaras water.
You read your lover's skinlike
a road mapinto yourself.
All touch is precious now.
There are echoes in the words thrown
before you.
When they take your picture
now you wet your lips, swallow once and truly smile.
Talk of your lost parents pulls you out,
and brings you home again.
You are in a riverflowing in and through you.
Take a breath. Reach out your arms.
You can survive.
A river is flowing flowing in and through you.
Take a breath.
Reach out your arms.