RECIDIVISM 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.

RECIDIVISM

It seems I don't learn.
All these months,
I've learnt nothing.
The nation state
Incarcerated me,
Poured out its wealth
On tubes, poisons, monitors,
Round-the-clock vigilance
And hard radiation.
But I learnt nothing.
Did not,
In the final analysis,
Reform.
And so I'm going back
Where I've already been for far too long.
I have been too long
In the country of the headless giraffes,
A pilgrim to a religion not my own.
There have been far
Far too many needles,
And not a single payoff on my bonus bonds.
Being an apocalypse
Is not a smart career move.
Banks won't take it as collateral
And it's no good on your resume at all.
But here I am,
A recidivist,
Heading back to the cancer ward
Again.
Undeterred, it seems,
By the penalties:
Nurse Mutant raucous in the corridors at 2 a.m.,
And the unspeakable
Hospital food.
And capital punishment,
Too.
Might scare you
But it's nowhere near enough
To frighten off the likes of me.


Copyright © 2005, 2007 Hugh Cook
May be photocopied for classroom use

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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.