Cancer

I thought I had a healthy appetite for home. But what I opened the door to may have influeced me to swallow a few gravol. The solid rock I had left behind had crumbled like a stale oatmeal cookie - The cancer had won. It had replaced flat stones in sockets where emeralds onced dazzled. Purple spots were tattooed on her skin, the way a blackberry stains your fingertips.

"Look at what it has done to me..." she says turning over her fragile arm.

I notice her nails are still long and painted pearly pink. It has not taken her completely. Not yet. She has only a spare wispy hair or two. Like spidery cobwebs, they blow as gently in the breeze as milkweed. She requests a seat in the sun because she said she wants to soak up the warm Florida tan.

She tells me that tomorrow if we rise early enough, we can watch the dolphins from the coast. I stand beside her on my deck in my backyard - eyes watching my dad flip chicken burgers on the grill before resting them back onto the dead field behind my house.

"Sure nana, get some rest, tomorrow we'll go see the dolphins..."

K.Kay <3