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June Hall

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Death by Statistics

Though officially dead,
(axed by insurers’ predictions), you’re different now
in the way you’re alive, my love. You let me hack
and trim your wild, post-chemo hair; fly south
to dip in the Med by moonlight, make love at dawn,
create a new-man wardrobe
in a sluice of aquas, olives, ochres and sky-blues –
bright reflections of the Côte d’Azur.

With your friend,
who survived the same cancer,
you mirrored, compared cut-away stomachs, no-go foods,
minute weight-gains, ups-and-downs of spirit,
the curse of wind balloons bursting in the guts.
Walking in each other’s moccasins, you measured
your footprints one against the other. But

now that he’s dead,
something’s changed. Though you still slump
round the house with your grumpy-old-man mug
and unbrushed teeth – a price on your head –
as I watch you baste in the sun, love,
you’re pushing away statistics and I’m noticing
you’ve finally chosen to live.

 

Poems for this issue were selected by Katherine Gallagher

Page(s) 45

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