For Nancy
Your words at Heather’s memorial were sweet
As lake waters gathering in the dying hemlock,
But now when the latest cancer has assaulted
Your abdominal wall, rock climber from hell,
You are fierce as a mother plucking out death
Like leeches from the legs of a terrified child.
Fierceness rolls a silent tide around the heart
Sings a war chant at the sound of your name,
Unconquerable as hawk in black walnut tree.
I go down where creeper vines climb the oak,
Pluck them out, inrushing life crackling out
Through my arms, as if today is the final day.
The day may come when only women weep,
But it is not this day. We are as fierce as the
Rickshaw puller in Dhaka, a million others
Vying for his place, saying not now, not me.
--for my dear friend
in her cancer journey
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