Mortal Alchemy: Thank You, Death, for Living Within Me
A Cancer Poem
I have written serious things about how I know Death so well —
both through direct experience and via plants that cast a spell.
Yet, it’s never occurred to me
to celebrate the ways
that death has taken refuge in my life.
A sea of stones, unfolding between my bones,
glow on the CT scan with a cancerous light.
And I remind myself I chose to dance with you.
And, you, in your deep beauty, have agreed to dance with me.
You cradle my left breast,
briefly caress my lungs, and then, sink,
into my liver, spread, around my ovaries,
the very space where a younger me created life.
Death, you spin me out from your heart,
toward the edge of ravines,
and I slowly glide back into you,
longing for the way your touch clears my vision,
condenses my lifetimes into gold.
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