CANCER

That day
Brutality
Exploded all around
“Cancer” – there was no gentle touch,
Stark truth,
Shocking,
The heavens cried out that dreadful day,
Seals wailed on Holy Isle,
“Will it kill me?”
“Don’t know.”

Absent
Minded she kissed
Me on my head softly,
The mother who had tried to kill
The babe
Within
She listened so intently to
The doctor as he spoke,
Straining to hear
The truth.

The babe
She wanted dead
Now fully woman, faced
Impending threatening death again,
And now
She saw
The child that caused her all her pain,
The child she never loved,
And loved her now,
“Mother!”

Within,
She found something
She’d never known before,
Love, a mother’s sore, fierce sweet love,
Swelling,
Growing,
Now, she only wanted to save
The child that she once bore,
Hold her, keep her,
Love her.

Anger
Grew within her,
Why should this child now die?
Now it was out of her control,
Her grasp,
Her clasp,
Fiercely she shouted at the child,
“Don’t give in now. Fight it’
Don’t let it kill
You child.”

Once more,
When all seemed lost,
She needed to maintain
Full power and control in life
In death,
Gripping
Hold of all that is, intently,
Fear filled her heart, she must
At all costs win
This time.

THE CHILD SAYS:

Nearer
My God to Thee
I come, for I am free,
To choose my path, live in Thy will,
Humbly,
Gladly,
I move towards that heavenly place,
My eyes behold it now,
Tears fill my eyes
Today.

No more
Can earth contain
Bedazzle or seduce,
Earth’s glory dims, all I can see
Is God,
On high.
I fly towards those heavenly plains,
Nothing can hold me now,
My heart sings out
In joy.