unsympathetic

without asking for sympathy

he still swings

those fists still ever-clenched

unyielding & enduring

jab after

jab

after

jab

bare-knuckled but far from

barnburning

his ferocity demonstrating that

going the distance is nothing short of an

unspoken certainty

speaking of the constant puking

when there is nothing in his

breadbasket

his shining bald head with but a few hairs here and there

burnt away in a chemo slash-and-burn

yet another

hook

another kidney-punch

a headbutt, a haymaker, a straight right---

as the cancer inside him

eats away at him

retaliating with all its might

he speaks of wanting to feel bad because that’s when he knows the poison is working

and how

he hasn’t kissed the canvas

he most certainly isn’t

down for the count---not even

½ the count

foaming at the mouth and ready to jump into the pit

with another

religious

idiot

trying to prove him wrong

pleading with him to accept their savior

before it is too late

praying for him while preying on him

telling him that god will forgive him

hitch still has em’ up against the ropes

stick and move

stick and move

a lifetime of visiting the scenes of the crimes

and telling us as it is

of never being afraid to take a stance that would not even

win him his own friends back

a

contrarian

to

the

f*****g

core

an anti-theist

upgrading the Atheists

teaching us to come out of the closet

and learn to throw

fist

after

fist

like him

with him

our brethren

in this struggle where we owe him much

for his razor sharp wit

has cut

time and time again

the throats of the self-righteous

not pausing between sucker punches

and

sunday punches

to even bother with the water bottle

“you cannot bullshit the young”

is his advice

beautiful in the reality that comes with it

for we would rather not have anything

but what is found through the scientific method

through first person untainted reports

through letters from people who will not profit in their making

ah yes,

the smart one knows best to let us have it straight

hit us with a dead pan, because hopes and dreams are for the movies

but reality

lives and breathes in us

and we can change that

because it is tangible

and

rational

and he reminds us that

humor

is one of the most powerful weapons

when confronted with any kind of

strife;

“i’m a member of a cancer elite,” he quips

“i rather look down on people with lesser cancers.”

 

treading water in stage four

and reminding us that there is no

stage five

regardless of what you think of him

understand that having chemo on the brain

makes one foggy

and it can keep one from focusing to do things that require

much concentration

like writing

when hitchens found out that he had stage 4 he was petrified

because he wondered if he would stop writing

remarking

“because writing is who i am, not what i do”

 

let us who create

who use our own minds to communicate with each other

and rationally criticize this world in which we live

to remain

unsympathetic

regarding mr. hitchens

for he is much stronger than one who needs the pathetic pity

of people who pray/prey on all of us

these

spiritual ambulance chasers who will no doubt have some scumbag in the hospital

that day he is on his last leg

waiting for a

deathbed conversion

 

let us continue to fight the fight of which he himself has been fighting

for decades now

and to do him the respect of assuring him

that the towel of which we may wipe our sweat with during the struggle

will NEVER be thrown in