End-of-Life Scenario

Beyond the turmoil of the day-to-day, tumor
inoperably couch-potatoed

in my brain, a puma
sprung to pounce, I know a seat

for me is waiting. It waits to receive the weight
of my body, a seat at the helm

of the invisible
spaceship that will take me

back to the beginning, the cradle
that rocks the patient into that state

of permanent vergetablehood
into which I know, one day,

he must slip, as if his head has thwacked
in the bathtub.

It’s not a rocking chair,
per se, not exactly, but it will rock him in dappled

shade tinkling wind chimes: the songs of birds
whose names he never learned.

Cameron Morse was diagnosed with a glioblastoma in 2014. With a 14.6 month life expectancy, he entered the Creative Writing Program at the University of Missouri—Kansas City and, in 2018, graduated with an M.F.A. His poems have been published in numerous magazines, including New LettersBridge EightPortland Review and South Dakota Review. His first poetry collection, Fall Risk, won Glass Lyre Press’s 2018 Best Book Award. His latest is Terminal Destination (Spartan Press, 2019). He lives with his wife Lili and son Theodore in Blue Springs, Missouri, where he serves as poetry editor for Harbor Review. For more information, check out his Facebook page or website.  

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