cancer

table of contents

***

I’ve often thought

of myself

as living on the outskirts of society,

like a cancer with more self-awareness than the organism itself.

Human witch

in demon realm;

seventy years in school, took twice as long;

human in a land of people with teeth in the top of their mouths;

a stranger to tree folk;

a wanderer searching for fate–

here I am,

out on the fringes.

Yet

I do the same thing

as everyone else

and avoid

the other cancers

like the plague;

don’t get me

mixed up with the druggies

(did the tree folk even call anybody that?),

don’t mistake me

for someone poor,

someone ill,

or anyone who actually belongs in a realm of icy exile–

why, I never searched out another human witch

(though they must exist somewhere),

because if I did find one,

I wouldn’t be able to call myself “the human witch,”

and what if

she was better than me

in every way?

Dr. Mizto

might just

replace me with her

and where would I be then?

So here I am

out on the fringes,

scorning the other wishers

and cynics

and struggle-to-survive-ers,

like the fishies

in the successful school

will invite me to join them soon

if I don’t mingle with the outcast kind.

***

check out my book Graveyard of Lullabies at this link