Cancer
Like the mantis that clicked
along bark, cannibal
to its mate, cells aggregated
in her organs. My eyes: tired
with malignant nouns.
On the good days
we streamed Planet Earth,
made homage to a cosmos
I could understand as frost
burned her nerves, as
poison bound her
molecules.
Her frailty grazed
the tips of my lashes
& my escape was narrow
as her toxic blood swelled,
her bones infantile against
cleaving light.
In our savage world we lived
as wanderers, watched bestial bodies
devoured as I asked the Holy
for substitution.
He answered in her veins, in
the cord she made taut between
life and death and love.
Now I balance that tie,
and I see all but what it took from me.
Abby Jewett 2019