No brown ribbons
for signet cell carcinoma. They haven’t
issued them. When she laid on the couch,
moaning through the night, I remember
thinking when is our gift bag going to
show up? Where do we sign up
for the next run?, pink, elastic
wristbands glistening in morning dew.
I could only imagine her
sloughing through the crowd, TPN bag
swinging like a useless, palliative udder.
Flipping through the channels
as I sat next to her in her last days,
I would search for some brave,
sardonic, irreverent comedian
joking about stomach pumps
and colostomy bags like
they have for the other,
more fashionable cancers.
I want to die, she’d whisper next to me
between her most recent breath
of ketamine and fentanyl.
I know, mom, I know.
About Jordan Potter
Jordan Potter is a writer and actor from Huntington Beach, CA. Having recently received his master’s from UCLA, he is a screenwriter of four feature films. His studio, Blank Verse Films, produces recitations and dramatic reenactments of poems.