Always lurking in the shadows where fear and loathing grows,
Cancer never has a face until it takes someone you know.
You see good days and bad days, from now until the end,
When  Cancer makes a shadow of a loved one or a friend.
Platelets are important, and anemia threatens too,
as Oncologists and their ilk are radiating you.
Chemotherapy and surgery; the physicians cut and burn,
The cost of all these treatments? - Every penny that you’ve earned.
If lucky, she will make it through and be called a survivor.
If unlucky, there’s a DNR and they will not revive her.

I don’t suppose they will have a cake,
The years mean nothing now.
You’ve long since ran your victory lap,
You kept that wedding vow.
You led, like us, an imperfect life
But that didn’t keep you down.
You’ve exchanged corruptible mortal flesh
for a celestial crown.
You and Mom are together again
with your parents and all your brethren
Oh, what a joyous event it must be
To celebrate your birthday in Heaven.

This was a place of happy memories;
some sad ones, also, I recall.
It was a detached frame colonial
and, as such, doomed to fall.                                                            ­                                

Our old neighborhood was changing,
multi-families all the rage.
The zoning laws permitted it,
it was time to turn the page.

A new brick building has replaced
the home my parents made.
They've carted off the remnants
Not a single scrap remains.

The new building doesn't interest me,
It's the old walls I recall.
I felt as if my own chest caved in
when they felt the wrecking ball.

My husband never liked it- he'd ***** moan and complain,
but it was my place of solitude, being Queen of my domain.
I spent happy hours there, just puttering  in my shed
I had a stash of bourbon there and some intriguing reds.

How the fire started we have never ascertained.
I still suspect my husband, but he'll never take the blame
He says it was a lightening strike that burned it to the ground
but can't explain the empty can of kerosene I found.

Though of suspicious origin, our insurance man came through
accepting tales of lightening strikes out of a sky clear blue.
I'll built my next she shed with brick and you can rest assured
that, no matter what the cost, it's gonna be insured.

I knew it without knowing; I cannot tell you why.
I sensed that this would be the day that we would say goodbye.
The doctor in in lab coat had played this scene before.
He used the term “metastasis “as he told me the score.
I asked if I could be with you as you faced the end
He said “of course, it’s better if the pet is with their friend.
He promised me there’d be no pain; just a pinch and then
My Labrador would drift to sleep and to his final end.
I kept a brave face for Boots sake; He shouldn’t see me cry.
The hardest part of having a pet is the day we say goodbye.

In wind and flame a forest dies,
But from the ashes she shall rise.
From pine cones opened by the heat
The trees ****** victory from defeat.
Among the embers fading glow
Seeds take root and soon will grow.
Surely conifers shall rise
and, evergreen,reach for the sky.
Like the Phoenix bird of legend
They rise anew to strive for heaven

If, tomorrow,You ask for me
and find that I have gone.
If some unwelcome guest arrived
and joined their hand to mine.
Think of me as if I'm asleep
and comfortably at home.
Please, do not grieve excessively
that you've been left alone.
Instead remember you are loved
beyond this veil of tears.
above all else remember me
and I am ever near.