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Courting Cancer

by Angela Cotterman

Of all the dangers around us, I am
the most unseemly, so much a mirror
of you, I walk upright, and it pains you
to see my height next to the green crab
and landed gulls. Now that the tide is gone,
we have a chance to talk in the honest
stink of softer animals stranded, too,
in the air. Their disaster makes ours small.
Although the rot and the brine has entered
my mouth, and you refuse to look at me,
I want you like the risk of becoming
unaware under the sound of the surf.
Long-limbed and awkward, I debone myself,
so that nothing about me frightens you.

06/03/2010

Posted on 06/04/2010
Copyright © 2024 Angela Cotterman

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by Linda Fuller on 06/04/10 at 12:34 AM

Stunning poem - to favorites for re-reading - to your library for more.

Posted by Adam Dyson on 06/04/10 at 01:33 AM

Very powerful.

Posted by Therese Elaine on 06/10/10 at 06:32 PM

This is one of the most unsettling and darkly sinuous pieces I've read...it goes into my favourites as well -and it will definitely stay with me for awhile.

Posted by Meghan Helmich on 08/30/11 at 11:51 AM

This is thoroughly enjoyable - it has an Atwood air to it.

Posted by Angela Stevens on 04/12/13 at 01:52 PM

I love the imagery in this piece.

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