dizziness

was

once lost

in space and

drank too much

of the primordial soup

 

stared into the toilet

at what came out from both ends

 

the afterbirth

was buttery and full

of Campbell's beans and franks 

and a blond lock of my daughter’s hair

Reviews

[. serah .]

-- i'm moved to tears... -- i wasn't able to bear it when my mum lost her hair during chemo... (before and after radical surgery)... so i went and got my head shaved... twice that year... just to be able to bear the pain... -- cancer is so mean... -- i sense the intensity of your pain, maestro d. ... and your magical dad heart... you're amazing... -- thank you so much for re-publishing this post... it reminds me of what we lost but it also reminds me of what we conquered... -- there's a lot of heart and resilience in your words...

[SkinlessFrank]

i took a few photos of her during that time to remind me in case i were ever to forget .... she wore a wig for a year but in summer it was too hot ... now when i see her with own hair again, i get chills from the thought of being delivered from that time of madness

[. serah .]

-- i remember that time of madness in my life too... and feel the same way when i see my mum now... -- it's overwhelming to know that we reached this moment in time from that moment in time... i don't think we could ever forget the journey... i think it makes us who we are... and we are different from those who haven't seen a loved one suffer so much... and yet make it to a better place... -- it's possibly one of the most intense experiences a human being could have...

[kmartell]

"of Campbell's beans and franks and a blond lock of my daughters hair" those two lines were earned by the rest of the poem, a "dialectic" relationship that makes the poem work.

dialectic is a fancy word isn't it. I thought so.

[J]

wow D, you surely make us work [and swallow twice] for an accurate read of you. so i will tell you what a friend told me ---- "just to review your work takes almost as much courage as it did to write it." i wish you faith that your daughter has already won the battle and it would do her justice to make her believe that ... not to mention, y.o.u.

tho gotta say, when my son was just a little tyke [still in his highchair], he went through a phase of refusing to eat anything but "pop pops" for breakfast and raw hot dogs for the rest ..... until he threw up those raw hot dogs ........ primordial soup finally lost its edge.

[Emily B]

there is always light, somewhere there in the midst of the afterbirth