Third Place Winner, March 2001 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

Third Place Winner, March 2001

CHEMO-THERAPY
Wendy Gravet
(Blueline Poetry Forum)

Already less than beautiful, I start
to fade my way to nothing.

Impatient bones tilt naked, stopped
en route to surface grandeur
by this pesky skin. They press
against my clothes in awkward places.

Soon nothing will be left.

Radiant hope is toxic, strips me
bare. I can stare into the gaping black
and smile with all the teeth I have left.

Mark's wife died today and I
can't recall her name.
This is the worst part of it for me:
betrayals that I never planned.

I should send flowers. I should weep.
I should tremble but I am tired and
there just needs to be
one good place to lie down.