CANCER
by Lina S. Reyes
How the pain?
A few have asked.
How the pain.
I cannot map it. There is no
Terrain; there is a blank
Landscape. I can see
Nothing. A woman, blind
Or blinded, still feels
Her way, in touch
With her lostness. But this one,
It has no land.
It has no ground.
2
The doctor’s vocabulary turns deadly
Militaristic: invasion, destroy, rebels:
Massacre, counterattack, fight.
Enough. This is no mere urgency.
I refuse to go to war.
3
When many shall learn to ask instead,
How the healing.
I shall tell dream as a metaphor:
There is a garden sprung imperfect
By the weed’s abundant tiny white flowers.
The garden shivers like a frail cloud.
There is a woman quietly humming,
Abundant of will. Quietly, she tends
Bougainvilleas, roses, a firetree by the gate,
Willing well the weeds, the flowers,
The firetree, herself.
I am the dream’s woman; her garden,
This body sprung and willed
To life’s many more moments.
—————
Originally published in Women’s Bodies. Women’s Lives: An Anthology of Philippine Fiction and Poetry on Women’s Health Issues
Edited by Thelma B. Kintanar
University Center for Women’s Studies
University of the Philippines
2001
lina is such a good writer and one of my literary mothers. a good friend of mine. i wish she would write and publish more poetry. although, she’s a formidable journalist too.
i haven’t heard of her before. and then i came across this poem.