cancer                                                            original painting by Georgia O'Keefe

by JOHN YATES

after such terrible darkness
the simple act of imagining
light can be seen as nothing
less than profound faith in life 

it is a faith not merely to
survive but to be alive in the
presence of gnawing apparitions
that leave behind only death 

cancer unfolds as the bloom
of a black rose that spreads
its carnivorous petals over the
chalice of cervix and uterus 

the sacred place that gives life
becomes a malignant harbinger
of death that the surgeon’s steel
knife exorcizes but cannot kill 

in the interlude between the knife
and the agony of chemotherapy a
soft but intense bright light arises
from within the heart of darkness 

light comes in waves that enfold
her womb softly and send auroras
of radiance into her heart that call
her to sing herself from deep within 

softly she draws me into herself
and wraps her legs tightly around
me as our bodies cry out joyful
songs of eternal life and love 

my lips kiss the black rose and
my tongue seeks her place of
pleasure and probes the empty
space left by the shadow of death 

her whole body rises toward me
in wave after wave of a vast ocean
of joy as together we cling tightly
to each other and ride the crest