Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
If you hadn't held down a job, we would've been *******.
If you hadn't worked, we would've had no shelter or food.
You worked hard for years to keep a roof over our heads.
You became ill in 2011 and twenty months later, you were dead.
About three years after you retired, you died at the age of sixty-five.
Even though you had months of chemotherapy, you did not survive.
When I learned that you had Leukemia, I started to pray.
If you were still alive, I'd wish you a happy Father's Day.
Dedicated to Charles F. Johnson (1947-2013) who died on July 13, 2013
If I asked for your help, could you?
Would you lend me a hand
Understand
Could you Be the better man
Would you help me when I’m struggling?
Cancer is and extremely expensive, ******, debilitating disease that slowly destroys not only your body but your relationships, mental stability, and your  finances too. Since I’ve been diagnosed with cancer on April 10, 2025 I have already had to miss an average of three days of work a week and at this point I’m starting to really struggle financially. I do have insurance, but it’s still $400 every time I walk into the hospital  for checkups or chemo. Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated and if you can’t, God bless you and thank you for taking the time to read this . Please copy and paste this Go Fund Me link
And your Internet,  browser or search Gracie Stoops, Missouri Valley, Iowa at gofundme.com, thanks again!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/aid-for-my-dads-cancer-battle/cl/s?lang=en_US&ts=1749225111&utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&attribution_id=sl%3Aaed289ea-dfcd-498f-8470-53bab9124cca
America is beautiful, great and wonderful
Eadem opera, she is ugly, pitiful and dreadful
In regards to the mistreatments of the Native Americans
The African Americans and other minorities
Yet, America is one of the best countries
In the world to be part of or to become citizens
Slavery remains an everlasting thorn in her history
Discrimination is a skulking cancer that won't go away
Any time soon. In the USA, one can always find a way
To survive, to make it amidst the chaos and the irony
Yes, America remains a land of a plethora of opportunities
We all hope and dream of a better America
We all pray and wish for a better America
Where breathe love, peace and auras of positive energies
We love America when she's right, just and fair
America, America can be like a Giant Bear
Who will equally protect her children
America can be like an uncelestial heaven
Let's celebrate Juneteenth: the emancipation proclamation
And the Fourth of July with love, peace, respect and admiration.

Copyright © July 2021, Hébert Logerie, All rights reserved
Hébert Logerie is the author of several collections of poems.
Jonathan Moya May 26
After all the operations, after the slow unraveling,  
I trace the shimmer left behind,  
a pearl forming in the absence of what was—  
the weight of my steps lighter, not in grace,  
but in uncertainty mixed with hope.  

I do not run anymore  
Yet, I watch Tom Cruise sprint, sprint—  
limbs loose, effortless at sixty-two,  
vaulting over rooftops,  
clinging to the side of airplanes,  
breathing forever underwater.  

He crashes, bruises, bleeds in theory,  
but never in flesh—  
his smile intact, his hair untouched,  
a muscular chest absorbing each blow,  
with no marks,  
no limp, no hesitation.  
I content myself with the thought
that I am the real mission impossible,
the one facing the final dead reckoning.

Sure,  I sit here, reckoning with the
dead weight  of legs that will not vault,  
feet that drag instead of sprint,  
watching a man outrun time itself,  
as I count the losses my body cannot ignore.  

Neuropathy hums in my hands,  
a static whisper beneath the skin,  
feet waiting for signals that never arrive.  
Pouchitis returns, rhythmic,  
a ghost cycle that feels almost natural,  
a body remembering what it should forget.  

And yet—there is something else.  
Not just the loss, not just the ache,  
but the way illness made me listen,  
the way it softened the edges of my voice,  
the way it let me hold my wife’s hand  
with a reverence I never knew before.  

I see faces at the mall, at the movies—  
those moving without thought,  
and those like me, learning how to walk again.  
I see my brother’s quiet grief and joy,  
my own reflected back in his silence.  

To confront death is to speak to it,  
to name it,  
to let it sit beside you,  
to let it teach you how to be human.  

I am a better poet for this.  
Not for the suffering,  
but for the softness it left me.  

And somewhere within the nacre,  
within the slow layering of survival,  
I am still here.
of survival,  
I am still here.
neth jones May 21
hats call to be filled but i am not in fashion for them-      
              -clear days   in any-which-season and i shall pay-
-the rays will fire away at my forehead and neck-            
        -unprotected i'll crinkle in some cancerous answer-
-and belch anger ungrateful and blame out at the world-
     -warning beacon to probably only a few immediates-
-we're heard before and ignored as there's so-                  
                             -much inflammation of knowledge clut-
-and damage readings of our species byproducts-            
                      -we just shut down or ghoul up merry mad
10/04/25
Randy Johnson May 19
He was born in Groesbeck, Texas and his name was Joe Don Baker.
Sadly, after living for nearly nine decades, he needed an undertaker.
He attended North Texas State College on a sports scholarship.
He starred in "The Living Daylights", "Cape Fear" and "Joysticks".
When I say that he was a very talented man, it's not a joke.
He died of lung cancer which proves that people shouldn't smoke.
After living for eighty-nine years, he perished and it's a shame.
Joe Don Baker was a skilled actor who was destined for fame.
Dedicated to Joe Don Baker (1936-2025) who died on May 7, 2025
Jellyfish May 13
Everything hurts.
My face scrunching up as the tears burst out of me
The lump in my throat that prevents me from speaking
The thoughts I'm forced to face now that feel never ending.

No one thinks the unbelievable will happen,
Until it simply does.
and the responses I have in the moment-
make me feel incredibly ****** up.

Shock is more numbing than the walk in freezer at work.
It's as if I were reading anything, not her actual words.  
I don't know who to blame,
or maybe I do- but that feels worse.
Thanks for another day
Others curse their luck, stale breath
Eventually our enemy becomes our brother

Cancer checkup, another swinging **** who fears his death
To not necessarily sacrifice each and every day for another day
I’m going to go to my grave unsung like almost everyone

Numerous number systems beyond the real
Look one way, from another come the heart’s missed beats
One way out of the mind’s limitations is through another mind’s
      contemplations

Another autumn, another election, so aimless and sublime
The white egret ate fish after fish, one then another then another...
You get a limited number of long walks, so take your time

One gives up body and soul but that’s not what I came to talk about
Slug the world and the world slugs back
It was amusing in my youth that God’s finger could move me to another
      square

Another duality, a day in the woods, jet passing overhead
I am in favor of kindness and you prefer concentration camps
The slow death of one sometimes makes the sudden ****** of another

To survive only as many more years as there are petals on a randomly
      picked (ox-eye) daisy
Another winter passing its calling card in at the window
One day follows another until the last day and on that day there will be
      weather
Randy Johnson Apr 26
He guest-starred on "The Jeffersons" and "Serpico".
He also guest-starred on "The Bob Newhart Show".
He starred in "The Sting II", "Iron Eagle" and other flicks.
This very talented man died at the young age of fifty-six.
He guest-starred on "The Dukes Of Hazzard" and "Archie Bunker's Place".
Lung cancer ended his life too soon and he was a credit to the Human Race.
DEDICATED TO MICHAEL ALLDREDGE (1941-1997) WHO DIED ON DECEMBER 19, 1997
If I have just one more day
I will fight forever
Give up nothing
Till the end of my days come
I will not be afraid
I will never turn my back and run
This is the path chosen for me
I may break but never be done
Courageous
I will have faith where there used to be none
I will fight for me
I will be strong
This cancer cannot bind me
Cannot beat me down
It’s shadow will not dim my light
Until I’m 6 feet in the ground
With every single heartbeat……….
I will rise up and defy all odds
I will fight until forever
If I have just one more day
Cancer *****!
I was diagnosed with stomach cancer on April 10, 2025. Until the call from the doctor, I believed it was never going to be me, I thought I cannot get cancer. Little did I know cancer does not discriminate. It does not look at your race, gender and especially age. I am only 48 years old and I have cancer.. It is still sinking in, but this poem is how I feel about my diagnosis and my journey, I will fight until the bitter end. Cancer will have to take me kicking and screaming, dragging me all the way. I am resilient, I am strong, I want to live! Please help me if you can with my cancer journey, it is not cheap to get cancer!
https://gofund.me/e7cbdb3e
(copy, and paste this link in your browser or search, Gracie Stoops Missouri Valley, Iowa on go fund me)
#CANCERSUCKS
Next page