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  Cancer's Gotta Leave a Mark

 David Deborde
 

 
“Cancer’s gotta leave a mark,”

She says to me over soup.
No hiding under baggy sweatshirts—
skin-tight white lycra, because she is proud
     of wrestling with Death who
   touched her in the morning,
drew a long scar jagging where her breasts were,
         and gave her the name survivor.

Later, her bald head in my hands
body lying flush against mine
there is strength
like making love to a man;
I kiss her and wonder what
Lillith felt breathing life with God.

 

 

  

David Deborde has taught at West Virginia State University and is currently teaching English at Greenup County High School.  His writings have appeared or are forthcoming in The Roanoke Review, The Pacific Review, Et Cetera, Bathtub Gin, Harpur Palate, and The Encyclopedia of Ethnic American Literature.  He has a chapbook, godspeople, coming soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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