I saw Cancer today it wore a yellow shirt.   There was blue there too.
Tomorrow I will see Cancer

in a red Christmas shirt. my
years of working there are

what is called

the quiet,

the undercut

Rainbow colors
that wrap around white
lab sheets. Large red

X,’ssss.

for my lovers sorrowing

I sit here waiting for a
ɓlare of recognition.

Cancer wearing also
my mother's laugh.

She was here in Hell
before me.

I need my lover to find
my Breast among the

ashes.


Caroline Shank
10.10.25


,

I write because some
thing turns me, looks
through me. It's Sunday
for a few more minutes

and I am seeing you as
a mover,
a truther
a slayer of snakes.

Every day there is news
of you.  Whoever you

may be.

Where flowers in my
sorry
Mind

bloom

alone where once there
were plans.  Before,

When I could find you
between in the lines.
I wrote then such good

Poetry.

Caroline Shank
10.5.2025

For you
with love.

I Made You Cry

I made you cry. My God
was not there then.

Twice.

Man sobs are jack hammer
loud and pounding.

I never thought that the
heart's beat, the last
sound at night,

Rasping, Would be
my own
heart

forever.

I made you cry.
The air broke with
shattered glass.

I hear you still.

Now you are
Gone
To Soldiers Every One

Caroline Shank
September 12, 2025

Needs photo prompt


In what museum
were we never destined to sail

To

Byzantium

When I write about you, and I will,
I will have had a bath, and a

drink.i will have soaked in warm
tub water. Scented.  My best

musk and a sigh for a cigarette
that years ago would have signaled
the best

experience i would have known.

When I form the words and images
Which now I press to my Self

Folded forever, used only once,

a delicate whisper

a Gloria

Sung for me through

you

With wine I now know will
Must my

Forever.

Yours


Caroline
August 25,2025

I began like this.

I hope your day was kind to you
and ends in prayer.

My day refuses.

Not a syllable or mark
from this
day forward,

As long as I may

Live

Without the breath of

You.


Caroline Shank
March 3, 2025

Nancy


Dance with me Nancy.
Show me the way to go
Home.

Teach me the rites of
A life of strong colors.
I watch as you turn
the days into yellows.

Yellow is the sign of forgiveness,
the ripened tastes of love.
The kindness that blooms.

Dance with me Nancy.
I watch as your patterns

teach me

how to be in this
place of uncertainties

and

insecurities.

Follow me home wherever
my directions are
baffling.

I look at you Nancy
I see a Rainbow.

You are God's Promise
that there will always be

A

Way home.


Caroline Shank
August 16, 2025