Chemotherapy: Round Three - it was unforgiving
so much so that Aviana started to forget who she
was or why she was at appointments, once, even
forgot that she had cancer; Aviana's parents started
asking her grandparents to help get her to treatments,
which felt like the final blow to her heart - but she couldn't
quite remember to be mad at the right times, so, sometimes
Aviana would blow up at random times that didn't make
sense, like when she took a bath and her sister would
come in to check on her instead of her mother, or
when they would go out to eat and forget a jacket
knowing she'll get cold in the restaurant; they've started
calling her unreasonable and complaining during
support groups; Sometimes she heard them saying
very negative things but she would be too weak,
or disconnected, to remember to say something to
her sisters or parents or counselor; in fact, even
teachers at school were noticing that she just wasn't
very present and always irritable; This is when her parents
had a private meeting with the doctors over the computer,
they decided that she needed to take time away from school
and wrote a letter recommending a prolonged medical
absence; she was too sick, too tired, too confused; Avaina -
was - everything she knew about herself was past tense;
Every memory was hidden behind a deep grey fog - a mist -
a block of smoke that she would try to wave away, only
it would never move; Aviana's memory had become blurry;
It was unclear how much of her life was before and how
much was now the after; Cancer continued to take and take
and take and take - and now she didn't even know what
was taken and what was left; Aviana and cancer were now
just one in the same; they were synonymous; Aviana
started to live in the part of her mind that left her separate
from everything else, considering the cancer the only
thing that would be with her until the very bitter end.
YOU ARE READING
terminal
PoetryThis is an epic poem that tells the tale of Aviana - the middle sister in her family of five who is diagnosed with cancer at just six years of age. It will be a raw telling of how terminal illness wreaks havoc in the lives of those touched by it whe...