We received an e-mail from Marilyn Stacy who sent us the following 2 poems – She wrote:

“Here are a couple of poems from my book about breast cancer, Sometimes You Have to Laugh…a Poet’s Look at Cancer.

You have my permission to print them on your website. I hope they give someone a smile.”

Her website is wonderful — check out the section “A Poets Look at Cancer”  http://marilynstacy.com

Losses

Troubles lurk in hidden places.

Everybody knows it

but nobody expects it to find them.

Conversations dwindle to nothing

when you tell friends

you have breast cancer.

Modesty disappears

somewhere in the MRI machine

or under the bone scanner.

And at an age when you’re finally

at peace with your hair, it deserts you–

a chemotherapy dropout.

+++++++++++

Fuzz

Soft white fuzz

is growing on my head.

I cheer it on,

massage my scalp

and wonder when the fuzz

will be long enough

to insulate and protect

my bare head,

when I’ll look like a woman again,

not a futuristic extra-terrestrial.

Next month I can finally fly

to visit my new great-granddaughter

for the first time.

I’m told the fuzz

on her head is light brown.

A snapshot shows her

wearing the same kind of soft,

pink knit cap I wear to bed.

I know we’ll bond.