THE DOLPHIN

for Insa

Cancer’s a queer fish:
anaemic amoeba endlessly mutating;
puffer-fish growths bloated with poison;
or shoals of cells that prowl like piranhas
stripping my health in their feeding frenzy.

But attitude can attack back,
till I’m the dolphin swimming free
from this sea of sickness.

I’ll trawl my system, catching cancers and fears,
netting them to wriggle and squirm:
powerless.

I’m the dolphin swimming free.

Modern medicine may have me filleted,
canned and processed, pumped full of additives –
but the rest is up to me...

I’m the dolphin swimming free.

Dread might dorsal my spine,
tears flood my face with brine
but I... CAN... DO... THIS...

I am the dolphin swimming free.