PAD Day 10

My poetry this month seems to veer between the comic and the tragic.  Today's double prompt somewhat guarantees the latter: (1) write a poem about suffering, and (2) write an "un-love" poem.  (Aren't most poems about suffering?)  So here is my entry for the day - probably not my best effort of the month, but it will do for now:

Carcinoma

She storms in like a jealous lover,

crowds out all the good in him,

weakens his resolve, murders his appetite,

and starts to claim him all for herself,

while we on the outside fight

to get him back.  We try to force her out,
but in the end she's won, and what's left

of him is a shadow, a husk.

He surrenders as she takes him with her,

leaving us abandoned, useless,

like broken toys in the rain.

On a more upbeat note, I wanted to share a very amusing poem by my friend Kelly Ramsdell Fineman.  This poem appears in the new issue of U.S. 1 Worksheets and also today on her most excellent blog, "Writing and Ruminating."  It's a great parody of a very famous poem.

Stuck Doing Chores on a Summer's Evening
  with apologies to Robert Frost

Whose clothes these are, I think I know.
I gave them birth. I've watched them grow.
They leave their dirty laundry here
In heaps as deep as drifted snow.

Sometimes I use All, sometimes Cheer,
And if a stain proves too severe –
Some grape juice, or some chocolate cake –
I always keep stain treatments near.

I give the Spray & Wash a shake – 
It's running out, and so I make
A mental note. The dryer's beep
Reminds me I don't get a break.

My family is counting sheep,
But I have washing in a heap
And piles to go before I sleep.
And piles to go before I sleep.

- Kelly Fineman