Tearing Up

Old tales of dead friends

She smashed into an icy killer tree, bled out

So no invitation to her grown up embryo’s wedding

Life, it keeps going

New tales of pancreatic cancer and 

Soon to be dead friends

A shared brita water purifier

The daily death watch reminder 

Current tales of anger

A screaming phone call

Drenched in unresolved fury

At his nearly dead mother

Some days the tears just drip

The silt backs up

Oozes out

Down grey cheeks

Leaving invisible salty trails

Nose runs

Eyes get gooey

And for what

©kcasady2014

Right Sized

Her battle was not lost

She still stands today

They never gave it a name

The illness that nearly struck her down

It’s a crap shoot she’d say

A guessing game

Some win

Some lose

Roll the dice

All or nothing

It took nearly two years

Surgeries, radiation, chemo

Leaving one dead kidney

A digestive tract loping along on scars

And the perpetual question

Is it back?

She’s cancelled her future medical appointments

What’s the point she says

Nothing they can do if they find something

So she lives

Travels

Stays at five star resorts

Spoils herself

Her son

Her husband

My every second day phone calls have stopped

No longer necessary

But then

As now

I do not discuss with her the shit storms that kick up in my life

Seemingly serious matters right sized when held up to mortality

I have my health

I face only quality problems

Things I’d deal with everyday

Twenty-four seven

Grateful

For the breath to work through them

©kcasady2014