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 Letters, Bridge Eight, Portland 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.