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This poem was written in the early stages of the "having cancer" experience, on a time when the precise diagnosis and, more importantly, the final outcome, were unclear. For me, it involved a narrowing of my focus, a sharp insistence on the demands of my own selfish and self-absorbed situation.
Undergoing the cancer experience does have its good points. Most noticeably, at the medical people start tmhrowing the technical lingo at you, your vocabulary soars upwards. But, in terms of moral improvement, it's definitely not a plus. You don't become a better person as a consequence. Not, at least, in my experience. (Your mileage may differ.) CORNFLAKES cancer poem in Genghis Lotus Poetry Collection, a selection of poems free to read online. The Genghis Lotus poems are hosted at two locations, genghislotus.com and zenvirus.com/genghis-lotus/. Webmaster for both sites is poet Hugh Cook, born in Britain, educated in New Zealand, and the author of, amongst other works, the fantasy series Chronicles of an Age of Darkness. |
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In the hugeness of the bulging hours Baggy beyond midnight There is a confrontation with death. Melodrama needs no floodlights. You can stage your doomdeath All alone and minus any audience. Finally, there is at last breakfast, Five in the morning And cornflakes. And cornflakes, it seems, Are the antidote to terror, Quotidian ritual which wards against grotesqueries. These cornflakes, though, Are served with three medications, signalling the death question. The very simple question on my mind: Is this it? Is this my final mile To the terminal chamber? Myself, that's my focus. Alone with my cornflakes, I Am entirely focused on me. An entire planet turns To facilitate The synching of my wristwatch with the sun. In the big orb of darkness The ocean still lacks a real light. I am a process which is in pause, My hopedream world suspended for the moment. I am the drum between orchestras, The question mark Parked between speeches. I am a diagnosis Not yet answered, A disease condition Waiting for a chart. Live or die, That's my question. There will be a negotiation with the future, And a treaty that will settle life or death. One way or another, I will know. But the calendar is a holdout on the date. So let us breakfast. With milk delivered, the cornflakes demand an eating, And the day, if not the one true real life, Continues. |
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May be photocopied for classroom use |
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Paperback Book or US $5 PDF file |
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CANCER POEMS: poetry about having cancer, about pressing on with life, about facing death and thinking about mortality, and about suffering damage from radiation therapy, this being in the form of brain damage and partial blindness. Don't miss the praise poem for Saddam Hussein, SADDAM IS GUILTY
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CANCER MEMOIR: read the full text of the brain cancer memoir Cancer Patient free online. Initial problems, diagnosis, neurosurgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and the achievement of remission. Read free online or buy as a paperback book from Amazon.com.
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CANCER BLOG: following remission, brain cancer seems to have returned. Further investigations follow. The author investigates the mechanism of his death. The author's deteriorating vision turns out to be the consequence of radiation therapy, not the return of cancer. Blog entries deal with survivorhood issues including dealing with degraded vision and with brain damage caused by chemo and radiation. The online entries are part of the literary miscellany This Is A Picture Of Your God, available from Amazon.com.
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