I make my annual journey

To that hilltop

house ,of healing

The medical center for life threatening diseases

A graduate of the 2001 class of learning

Institute of Cancer

Today

I bring no offerings gifts or sacrifices

my obligations have been fulfilled

I have paid the price for dancing with the devil

And so death must wait another day

Today

I am fiercely healthy

Bringing hope to the hopeless

By being

Faith to the despaired

A life no longer measured

by the realities

Of numbers

Today

I am a person

As I sit here among the other, patients

Sharing the same air, while they struggle

Gasping in short breaths, oxygen tubes dangling

hair falling , skin yellow

Waiting …..clock ticking…their turn

Today

I will hear the rattle of their brittle bones

As they break these earthly bonds

feeling their hearts beat

Trying to calm their fears

Connected by this shared experience

destiny and fate

Today

I look ahead, for I have endured

The pills and poisons

and surgeons' knives

And false promises

Of all the yesterdays

And still

I stand upright

scarred and broken

Arms outstretched

Sacred and holy

sinful

Striving for tomorrow , for

Yesterday has gone past, and

today, is everyday

Everyman

snassano 08-31-2010