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Renegade
by Chris Sorrenti
At the marrow nursery, they inform me I’m a white blood cell.
My orders, “Defend the common good from hostile intruders;
all you have to know and do,”
say the authoritative cells, living it up at cerebral HQ.
Their wisdom ... I’m forced to question.
“This is life?” I ask myself. Nothing more to look forward to.
The only high when I give chase to foreign bodies,
with others just like me; white cell clones trapped in a system,
we had no part in creating.
I ask my brothers and sisters why we should obey.
“We’re going to die in a couple of weeks anyway,
while those no better than us live on?!”
Red cells watch in alarm as my pigment turns from white to black,
charging hungrily towards them; antibodies in hot pursuit.
“You know too much for your own good.
We don’t allow Leukemians in the system.
You’ll have to come with us!”
I just laugh and race ahead, losing them in a capillary maze,
as all around, fellow white cells change color;
turning Medicine upside down without a given reason.
© 1982
1,590 hits as of April 2024
04/04/2006 Posted on 04/04/2006
Copyright © 2024 Chris Sorrenti
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Michelle Angelini on 04/04/06 at 06:30 PM Chris, I love the way you take something serious and see it in a humorous light. Yep, there are armies within us...
~Chelle~ |
| Posted by Maureen Glaude on 04/04/06 at 06:34 PM so imaginative a piece. Very original. |
| Posted by Maria Terezia Ferencz on 04/04/06 at 09:43 PM Interesting that I read about one cell and see a thousand different lives and scenarios in it. Very neat write.. |
| Posted by Quentin S Clingerman on 04/05/06 at 12:46 AM My eyss opened wide as I read this and realized what was going on! I found no humor in this! It is down right scary! I guess too many of my family and friends have had to battle cancer! And I have known several children who had to battle Lukemia some unsuccessfully. Excellent writing! |
| Posted by Christina Bruno on 04/06/06 at 12:36 AM haha i am teaching my students all about that this week... i am going to show them this poem. very good :) |
| Posted by Joan Serratelli on 04/06/06 at 04:40 PM Ah...if this was only the way oue blood system worked!! Very imagnitive write- shedding humor where there usually is none. Excellent piece, Chris! |
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