The Cure for Cancer
by Gary Hardaway
Someone will cure cancer
a few years before the cities
start to disappear beneath the waves.
Thus, more people can drown
and leave their bones for the
extraterrestrial archaeologists.
Where's that Nobel
for the guys who cured cancer?
Under the waves, somewhere
near what once was Stockholm.
So good, Gary.
There's something nihilist in it. The sense that on the timeline of universes we as a species will only ever be fruit flies. But not entirely, because that's species centric isn't it? That universe we're a part of will go on without us. Just bones on a dead planet. But the things that were us, we'll still be here in some form when the last sun dies.
Perfect combo--the poem and Frankie's comment. Nothing else to say. *
That closing stanza. **
"The very thing that gives us life kills us in the end." Don't know who said it first. I got it from Ry Cooder. Great piece, Gary. **
I love how much you tell with so few words. *
The tone with which this is rendered reduces the apocalyptic and dystopic to impassionate fact, making the work subversive to the max.*
Frankie! So good to have you here again. Thank you.
Thank you, Matt
and Rachna,
Sam and Emily,
and Gary.
Agree w/ GVP. Succinctly put by him. *
Thank you, Brenda.