Cancer

Cancer!
Why do you exist?
Why am I born with you?
There is not an ounce of construction in you,
Only destruction.
I take it back.
You Can be constructive
On how you plot to invest our bodies
With pain and suffering, organ by organ
And you do Not discriminate.
You make travel paths from our brains
All the way down to our feet
As if not a bone or a muscle stands in your way.

You play with our minds.
We are dogs that tilt our heads when you
Do something we don’t understand, like,
Come back.
Then we cower in the corner
Wondering what we did wrong,
What we did to deserve this.
Your policy of no mercy is Effective like a death sentence.
One way or another it’s going to happen.
Dragging bodies through stages of Hell
Wished only for afterlife.

Don’t look away when I’m talking to you.
If you wish to End me one day
You look me in the eyes first.

That’s just like you.
Not a care in the world.
You move your eyes
Like you relocate your most trusted destroyers.
Throat.
Breast.
Bladder.
Lung.
Colon.
Kidney.
Prostate.
Pancreas
And too many more bricks
Of our most beloved walls.
You are like a kid at the playground
Where the human anatomy is a jungle gym
At your disposal and discretion.

I’m glad you’re having fun at our expense.
One simple fact keeps me grounded.
Hopeful.
Peels away layers of the cynic
You ripened inside me.
You are Not undefeated.
You Can be beaten.
You Can be overcome.
You Can be conquered
And it doesn’t matter
That you’ve won more battles than lost.
What matters is Just because
You press the start button
That doesn’t mean the game is rigged.
People have a Chance to beat you.
The levels will get harder, and harder
Because that’s the way you like it
But you can still slip on that banana peel
And land flat in remission.

You don’t like that word, remission, do you?
Reminds you of all those times you cut and run.
You staked the white flag
Because you knew you couldn’t win.
You felt as useless as the masses you’ve preyed on
And you felt Less, than a Fraction,
Of what We go through,
Day by day simply after
Making yourself known.
You even leach on to Kids,
Making adults not enough
To quench your thirst for cold blood.

It’s OK.
You will always have an advantage.
Your resources are everything inside
And outside
Because we are hosts,
Born with the cruel and unusual
Parasite that you are
But you are Not the unbreakable
And you are Not an untouchable.
Your weakness is the knowledge
You always have a chance at winning
And losing.

So keep us in hospitals.
Expose our scalps.
Pale our faces.
That’s why we started fighting
And we will Never stop,
Even if it Kills us.
We are not afraid of you anymore.
As superior as you are,
You are just as capable
Of being humbled into your Own corner
Of nonexistence.

I’m not asking you to leave.
I’m telling you you should go.
I’m not asking authorities to
Vacate you from my premises.
I’m gonna be the one to show you the door.
I’m gonna prey on You for a change.
I’m gonna put you in your rightful place.
Outside…of me.

 

LUCCI (which stands for Listening, Understanding, Caring, Considering, Inquiring) is a poet, an actor and aspiring comedian who enjoys being creative while making positive change and entertaining in the process. He has featured in such places as Boston Talent Showcase, Wierdstock 2011, The 2nd Annual Haught Pink Breast Cancer Fashion Show, Writer’s Block, and also had a role in the independent film Supa Dupa.