David Anthony Sam

The Philosophy of Cancer in Six Quatrains: For Betty Lou Baker

                              1  
In biology class she had to draw
the parts of the cell in pen and ink:
Protoplasm, chromosomes, nucleus.
She labeled the parts with red ink.
 
                              2  
Somewhere inside, even then, waiting,
her own cells wanted to be feral, devouring,
wanted to send wrong messages
and explode madness from cell to cell,

                              3  
She felt the lump in her breast,
like the growing lump in her womb
when she was pregnant. Each birthed
from her the bloody tissue of her sex.
 
                              4  
When she looked at the sutures
in her chest, she wondered how
she could be unzipped so easily,
her breast removed like a worn jacket.
 
                              5  
She tries to imagine cells gone wild,
the tumors regrowing, like drawings
of cells in ink. She stands, strong, normal, 
except for the madness of her body.
 
                              6  
It is an odd way to die, she knows   
her body building itself insanely,
misreading its own diagrams,
turning itself into a lump that kills.

Copyright 2025 David Anthony Sam

Bio:

David Anthony Sam lives in Locust Grove, Virginia with his wife, Linda. His poetry has appeared in over 100 journals. Eight of his poetry collections are in print including Writing the Significant Soil (2023), winner of the Homebound Poetry Prize. A ninth, Geographies of the Dead, was published in 2024.

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