The Reality

 

I try to keep a sense of humour about cancer, but there is a reality.

This life is like a tightrope 

that I dance upon,

a balance of meaning and hope,

and if I slip I'm gone.

The boundaries are hard and close,

oxygen and a chair.

Not the thing I would have chose,

but it's real and I'm there,

trying not to cast my eyes

into the blank abyss,

and truly the only prize

is ensuring I don't miss

the next most shaky step I take,

fall to despair on which I'll break.

The Five Minute Friday prompt this week is FIGHT, a quality of which I am running out.

I've fought this thing for years and years,

and used to have a battle-shout,

but now I realize my fears,

and time is running out,

and I really have to ask,

was all of this worthwhile?

Or was it just a silly mask,

a bow to macho style?

I really can't see there from here,

and cannot know an answer,

but it seems perfectly clear,

the winner will be cancer,

and I hope that all I've done

will be accepted by God's Son.

Music from The Damned, with Tightrope Walk

The video is from a really terrific film, The Walk, about Phillipe Petit's high wire walk between the towers of the World Trade Center.

Sylvia will walk the wire for ice cream, using her tail for balance.