NINE-MONTH PARACHUTE DROP cancer poem in online poetry collection

This poem was written at a time when it seemed that brain cancer had returned, and immediately after I had discussed, with my oncologist, the mechanism of my death. That was one discussion which I had without any members of my family being present.

As it happened, I was not suffering a return of cancer. My eyesight was deteriorating, suggesting that a brain tumor was putting pressure on the optic nerves, both of which go through the same narrow channel in the brain.

But there was no brain tumor. Rather, my eyesight was heading downhill because of the consequences of radiotherapy in the form of sixteen grays of radiation to the brain.

NINE-MONTH PARACHUTE DROP cancer poem in Genghis Lotus Poetry Collection, a selection of poems free to read online. Webmaster for this site is poet Hugh Cook, born in Britain, educated in New Zealand, and the author of, amongst other works, the fantasy series Chronicles of an Age of Darkness.

NINE-MONTH PARACHUTE DROP

If there is no therapy,
Which is a possibility,
If it is nine months then finish,
Then I conceive of my death
As a parachute drop,
Nine months down then done.
Nine months of floating down through
Sun, wind, rain, daily newspapers
And bowls of cornflakes,
Down, at last, to the nausea zone,
Vomiting and blindness,
The last
Tyrannosaurus dreams in the kingdom of headaches,
The last discardings.
Assured that I will not lose,
At any stage in this descent,
Myself.
That I will still be me myself
Right until the very end,
The finish.

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CANCER POEMS: poetry about having cancer, about pressing on with life, about facing death and thinking about mortality, and about suffering damage from radiation therapy, this being in the form of brain damage and partial blindness. Don't miss the praise poem for Saddam Hussein, SADDAM IS GUILTY

CANCER MEMOIR: read the full text of the brain cancer memoir Cancer Patient free online. Initial problems, diagnosis, neurosurgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and the achievement of remission. Read free online or buy as a paperback book from Amazon.com.

CANCER BLOG: following remission, brain cancer seems to have returned. Further investigations follow. The author investigates the mechanism of his death. The author's deteriorating vision turns out to be the consequence of radiation therapy, not the return of cancer. Blog entries deal with survivorhood issues including dealing with degraded vision and with brain damage caused by chemo and radiation. The online entries are part of the literary miscellany This Is A Picture Of Your God, available from Amazon.com.