A great part of being an author and blogger is all of the emails I get from readers who I never would have met otherwise. Rich Devlin is one of those people.
Rich sent me a riveting poem a few weeks ago called The Price of Survivorship, which you can read below. He recently lost his wife of 38 years to breast cancer, and lost both of his parents to cancer too. He has two young daughters for whom he is “scared to death.” I’m curious to hear your response to his poem.
Have you ever written poetry during your or someone else’s illness? Do you have any favorite poetry or poets that you read to get you through the rough times? If you have any favorite poems, written by you or another poet, please leave them in the comment section for me and others to read. Come on Luke, I know YOU do!
The Price of Survivorship
Slides
d i s s o l v e
one
after
another
headless, legless torsos
prophylactic
r e c o n s t r u c t i o n
before & after surgery
latest techniques unveiled (proudly)
with clinical precision (emotionless)
silicon or saline (choice)
risk of rupture (real)
possible asymmetrical results (very fine print)
abdominal incision (aka. “tummy tuck”)
Tattooed areolas (optional)
Synthetic nipples (possible)
necrosis (occasionally)
mounds
of
molded
flesh
devoid of feeling.
“Everything Changes is, without doubt, the most forthright, emotionally sophisticated, and plain-old valuable book of its kind I've seen.”
