FIFTY CYCLE cancer poem in online poetry collection

This poem aims to capture the routine nature of chemotherapy when you do it again and again. And again.

This poem called FIFTY CYCLE is one of the poems in the cancer poems section of the Genghis Lotus Poetry Collection which is hosted at two locations, genghislotus.com and zenvirus.com/genghislotus/.

This poem is by Hugh Cook, author of the medical memoir Cancer Patient, the full text of which is available to read for free online.

Click to read Cancer Patient

FIFTY CYCLE

This is not the fireworks show.
This is the fifth cycle:
The repetition of the repetitive.
Chemotherapy:
Poison then antidote.
A siege of IV fluids.

This is not the exploding sun.
This is the therapeutic crypt,
A world removed from the realms of
Surfing dandelions, croissant cafes,
Lipstick kisses and pipebomb hysterias.

This is oncology, the world of:
Relaxed, friendly,
Make yourself at home.
No alarm cries of dementia,
No rabid chimpanzees of panic,
No napalm in the marzipan.
Chemotherapy is not a Christmas stocking
Stacked with ink spray surprises
But a stack of wet bus tickets,
Moldering.

Cancer is not opera.
It is stuffed pillows,
Constipated clocks,
Blancmange without land mines.

In the domain of needles
Broccoli is reliably green
And I am a reclining spine
Gnawed at by zeroes
From now until the ricebubble morning.

This cancer poem touches on the subject of the routine nature of chemotherapy. No drama but a lot of boredom. A chapter relating to this subject can be found in the online medical memoir Cancer Patient.

Click to read related chapter

Summary of Chapter Forty-Three
of Cancer Patient:
In May of 2005 the author's fifth chemotherapy cycle (the fifth of six) gets underway in the hematology department at Auckland Hospital. In hospital, the author eats hospital food, including "Corned Beef & Mus". The author is never able to determine what "mus" might be. Even sitting there on the plate, "mus" remains a mystery. The author gets good news on the blood count front. The author discusses eyesight problems caused by cancer.

Click to read

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