Just The Facts
skin cancer
walks along Zuma beach
at noon
lung cancer
goes down to the City of Hope lobby
to smoke
bile duct cancer
bellies up
to Gill’s buffet
bone cancer
rides through Runyon canyon
on a gravity bike
at the hint of a cure
a thin crowd collects
on Figueroa Street
Mother And Son
I flew in and spent
two weeks with the
sentient patients
while she slept nearby
on a mobile bed
awake, she resisted
all questions, refused
to reply, shunned
her past, shuttered
her earlier life.
I needed to hear answers
to get information,
but my request
was tardy by more
than a decade
a fat madwoman
in the next ward
befriended me
so I engaged her
in animated blather
It was not the same.
Bill Yarrow is the author of Blasphemer (Lit Fest Press 2015), Pointed Sentences (BlazeVOX 2012) and four chapbooks. His poems have appeared in many print and online magazines including RHINO, Contrary, DIAGRAM, FRiGG, Uno Kudo, Gargoyle, and PANK. He is a Professor of English at Joliet Junior College where he teaches creative writing, Shakespeare, and film.
