Why did you have to get cancer?
Why?
Why?
YOU were the healthy one!
YOU were the one who could leap tall buildings at
a single bound
or, at least, scamper up Mt. Katahdin.
You were the playful, mischievous,
lovable joker
who acted younger than I:
I,
born bowed down like
an old lady
bearing the weight of the world
on my shoulders.
I thought you would never grow old…
just fall off one of the mountaintops
you so love to climb
or get hit by a car.
Dead in an instant
no suffering
no aging.
Now you are losing yourself.
You are losing parts you always had.
And gaining lumps and bumps
and topics of conversation
we never wanted
for you.