Chemo is a Gateway Drug

All my silver linings

have turned blood red,

hopeless resilience

stuck knives farther in.

Work tirelessly to trust

nerve my body has,

to still betray what

I fought so hard to have.

I can’t caress callous skin

without remembering

the battles I never

should have had to win.

Crept quietly into my

haunted house flesh,

again I’m possessed

by poison pestilence.

I abandoned building

any tumorless future,

I’ll simply be left to

solemnly pass poorer,

to inspire those who

claim they knew her.

Pigmented ligaments,

bruised by barbaric

practice of meticulous

excision of the tragic

experience of this,

cancer,

nefarious

genetics.