Not Cancer
She was not felled
By the same scourge
As her husband
Gone 37 years
She endured being
An orphan of divorce
A handsy uncle then
Different high schools
She married once
A man with three kids
A vasectomy to reverse
Birthed him two more
She couldn’t tolerate
Her neighbor’s intrusions
On her children and those
Attempts to take her home
She did trip over
A bicycle in the garage
Leaned against a pool table
A bad leg ever since
She believed her
Homosexual daughter
Was going to Hell until
She became her caregiver
She developed diabetes
From God knows where
Prepackaged American
Microwaved food
She also inherited
Her mother’s weak heart
Coupled with dementia
A final disease combo
She ended in a hospital
At 8:30 on a sunny morn
With prearranged orders
Do not resuscitate
She never trusted
Her eldest and only son
Whose interracial marriages
Wrote him out of the will
Copyright 2025 Don Kingfisher Campbell
Bio:
Don Kingfisher Campbell, MFA Antioch University L.A., taught at USC and Occidental College Upward Bound, board member California Poets In The Schools, publisher Four Feathers Press, host of the Saturday Afternoon Poetry reading and workshop series in Pasadena, California. For awards, features, and publication credits, please go to: http://dkc1031.blogspot.com
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
