Hades – A Poem by Rowe Williams

The typical homotypic behavior of cancer can, sir, evade the best laid battle plans, remaining in clans until, escaping their sinister canister, growing in size, metastasize as it plies its host for the most it can consume, flow in blood flume, will assume the shape of its Great Ape, once capable and unconstrainable, is now constrained by cells contained within thin skin, cannot win but instead must head, calm and collected, to embalm their life, collect insurance alms for life, desiring assurance of their endurance, choking on air, hoping repair of impairment; giving consent to pay hospital rent, bent on contentment, as cancer khanate conflates suffering and fate on your plate of cruel gruel fuel for one more day, and then one more as your core is eaten, beaten, lead-in to thoughts of lots of things, mostly dreams of death, last breath, River Lethe to forget kismet, set on rest, no more tests lest I lose, ooze, what makes me, me, mon cherie; aches deep as lakes creep as wakes proceed in mind, I concede in kind, plead to find peace of mind, heart, soul. Dad carts coal; I am a foal, shooting goals, filling roles, milling time, time to kill, time to waste, time defaced, cut, copy, paste the days, all the ways fall away, no, please, let me stay, Daddy let me play, let this be today; don’t make me cry, make me die, make me ask why, ask when this will all end. Don’t send them in, hem in, don’t see me like this, no kiss for dead lips, mouth dips into frown, eyes once were brown, heads down, hearts drown, hearts pound, hearts pump, please one last squeeze, blasts me, last me, vast sea, free at last me.