Olgita

Olgita with her chemo-cut

bald as any cue ball

down three-quarters breast

her fingers thinner than the pencils

held in the execution

of crosswords

 

Source: theguardian.comlife in bed

the flat screen delivering deadpan

the bad jokes of daily news

nothing to do

but gather interest

(the same way indigents

scrounge tobacco from dead butts)

in the moisture slowly painting

free-form frescos on the eastern wall

 

the daughter in and out of treatment

depending on which voices she listens to,

the son in the army now

doing surgery on rifles,

thank God for grandma,

the rock of ages

who will not be moved,

walking with trouble

and the stairs, well, they're murder.

 

Olgita in her room

with the million dollar view

she's tried to mortgage

to cover the thousand biopsies.

What more can be said?

Cancer wasn't what we expected.

Greg Kennedy, SJ works as a spiritual director at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre in Guelph, Ontario. He is author of Reupholstered Psalms volumes I, II, and III; and Amazing Friendships between Animals and Saints (Novalis Press).

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