In my hands the grip on life is weakening incessant tremor shakes my tenuous hold in my voice the words are thickening no longer resilient assertive or bold in my falling hair no flowers will bloom there is no lustre richness or growth in my head there is no room for pleasant thoughts or more to know in my eyes the irises are black darkened by illness, depletion and pain they can’t look forward only back to where I’ve been and will be again in my nose the smells are fetid ripe with the stench of sickness and rot in my mouth the taste is wretched appreciate what you have? I think not!
When the cancer came to our house
It entered through the back door
It snuck around the kitchen
Down the stairs and straight into
Our parent’s bedroom
No one saw it arrive
No one knew it was even near
No one knew to shed a tear
When the cancer came to our house
We were blithely oblivious
Our father worked away day to day
Our mother taught, thought and sought
Children came first and learnt without hurt
Life was as good as suburban life could
When the cancer came to our house
The doctor said it wasn’t
A young mother said it wouldn’t
A young father said it couldn’t
And the children had no notion of it at all
When the cancer came to our house
Our mother’s pain was hard to understand
Fatigue and irritability unexpected and unplanned
The right way to help couldn’t be defined
We’d often not know quite where to stand
As she rushed to the toilet or growled as she scanned
And we still didn’t know the cancer was at hand
When the cancer came to our house
An unborn child, sister to siblings
Was more important than knowing the findings
Was important to the future of life with the wildlings
Her death bereft being caught in such bindings
When the cancer came to our house
It was discovered way to late
To deliver our mother from her miserable fate
Of dying without respite
Of fading from the light
Of unbearable pain and strife
Of the shameful waste of her precious life
For this d'Verse prompt asking us to use "the house" as a subject for our poem, I apologise for breaking the rules. This is not imaginary, but I felt it had to be my response.
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