The Biopsy
Genius is seeing things as they actually are
after Irving Layton, Canadian Poet
In a drug-induced quasi- real realm I dread
the drill of the needle about to dig deep into
the bone to determine why platelets would
vacate my lifeblood, escape like helpless
leaves carried out to sea by a sudden storm.
A velvety blanket covers my panic with strange
calm but illusory smoke unfurls big C words
like cancer and chemo scribbled in the air,
not in ink but in pencil, so faint I can barely
read them; I make them disappear like ether.
When the sting of the needle pierces the core,
the bone is shattered, the marrow retrieved,
will I be able to unmask what is transparent
rather than smudge the surface with prejudice
or magical thinking, fancy thought…?
Let me brush off fairy dust vaguing the air,
scrape sand from my ostrich head stuck
buried and gasping. Whatever the finding, let
it be written in ink; now that I’m a genius for seeing
clear, I can invent something to erase indelible ink…
Copyright 2025 Arlene Wohl
Bio:
Arlene Wohl – Fiber artist, poet of self-published poetry and art book A Jagged Line and a new manuscript ready for submission To Stave off the Night.
Donation Appeal:
To help victims of cancer and to help foster continuing research into this deadly disease, please consider donating to either The American Cancer Society or The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Thank you.
30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review
