Deirdre Neilen, PhD: Jillian Barnet is a physical therapist, masseuse and a poet. She sent us a poem that starts off cataloguing the many indignities that cancer can mean for a body. Yet she ends with a beautiful reminder that love can push those moments aside.
Here is "You Don't Need a Nose and Other Things I've Learned":
You don't need a nose, but can do
with something resembling
melted fudge, just don't look
in the mirror. If you make a joke
about your prosthesis on Monday,
it doesn't mean you won't try to kill yourself
by Wednesday. Two eyes are unnecessary
for driving, but your 5-year-old may ask
you to put your second one in
before taking him to school. Men
most often get melanoma
on the back, women
on the leg. Sunscreen
is next to worthless. According
to accountants, it should take
no more than eight
minutes to tell a patient
he's dying. An ear
can be lopped off and
you'll hear fine through the unadorned
hole in your head. It's a very bad
idea to remove your own
melanoma with a kitchen knife. You can get
melanoma where the sun
doesn't shine. If you have
your eye radiated, or removed, you
have equal chances
of survival, but the fake eye will
seem more organic than
the blind one. Polymer
eyeballs bounce and easily
end up in the toilet. If you hated God before
you got stage IV melanoma, you won't
be around long enough to repair
the relationship. Melanoma likes
best to travel to the liver, lungs,
and brain. There are thousands of clinical
trials and no proven treatment. A wedge
of your head can be
removed like a slice of pie with
your cheek and eye in it, and your
husband will still adore you
as he watches you sleep
in your hospital bed. The mind
believes what it must. We are not
our bodies, but longings
individual as clouds.
