BURN, BABY, BURN
“Cancer hates a smiling patient.”
– Jim Tilley
“Disco Inferno” pounds the air
at radiation therapy –
Burn, Baby, Burn!
Alone in the lead-lined room,
I’m eager to share the joke,
grateful Baby is still ablaze
when the tech returns.
He apologizes, wonders how the song
slipped through, promises to remove
those flames from the play list.
You wouldn’t believe how long it took us
to remove all the songs about death and dying.
He gives examples
but I’ve stopped listening,
light snatched from my fingers,
comedic urges crushed.
I’m back in my body,
in the wheel
of desperate routines:
the linear accelerator
clicking like castanets
above me
every morning
the whir of the beam
bombing
the pillaged country
of my tumor
the clash of banter
and hospice pamphlets
in the waiting room,
where I can’t be sure
what I’m waiting for
beyond my blistered skin.
Terry Godbey is the author of four poetry collections, the most recent of which is Hold Still, due out in late 2013 or early 2014 from Main Street Rag. Her other collections are Flame, Beauty Lessons and Behind Every Door. The winner of a Rita Dove Poetry Award, she lives with her son in Orlando, FL, and works as a writer of employee communications at Darden Restaurants Inc. Her website is terrygodbey.com.
– Jim Tilley
“Disco Inferno” pounds the air
at radiation therapy –
Burn, Baby, Burn!
Alone in the lead-lined room,
I’m eager to share the joke,
grateful Baby is still ablaze
when the tech returns.
He apologizes, wonders how the song
slipped through, promises to remove
those flames from the play list.
You wouldn’t believe how long it took us
to remove all the songs about death and dying.
He gives examples
but I’ve stopped listening,
light snatched from my fingers,
comedic urges crushed.
I’m back in my body,
in the wheel
of desperate routines:
the linear accelerator
clicking like castanets
above me
every morning
the whir of the beam
bombing
the pillaged country
of my tumor
the clash of banter
and hospice pamphlets
in the waiting room,
where I can’t be sure
what I’m waiting for
beyond my blistered skin.
Terry Godbey is the author of four poetry collections, the most recent of which is Hold Still, due out in late 2013 or early 2014 from Main Street Rag. Her other collections are Flame, Beauty Lessons and Behind Every Door. The winner of a Rita Dove Poetry Award, she lives with her son in Orlando, FL, and works as a writer of employee communications at Darden Restaurants Inc. Her website is terrygodbey.com.