The chemo makes you tired at first,
So you tend to sleep the day of treatment.

But throughout the week,
The radiation takes its toll.
I watch it slowly unfurl inside of you.

Your joints ache like there are embers between the bones,
And your belly fills with hot, heavy lead,
And your tonsils swell with fluid,
And your *******, traitorous with tumors, are sore and bruised.

This is a pain that eats at you:
Your nerves, your patience, your kind words.

You’re a *****. Vicious and unrepentant. It hurts.

I become petty and spiteful,
Convinced you are determined to make me suffer with you.

You tell me that I don’t care about you anymore.
And I ask you why you can’t appreciate the things I do for you more.

But today,
You showed me how your hair had lost most of its ***** curls,
The follicles soft and preparing for departure,
And you cried because your wig, while pretty, didn’t look like you.

I can only hold your swollen hand
And promise to draw your eyebrows for you.