Another poem I’m honored to have published by The Good Men Project. This one comes from a deeply personal space: I lost my mother to colon cancer (and wrote about that experience in the memoir Please Talk about Me When I’m Gone), and like so many families, wish colonoscopies had been more widely available during the last part of the 20th Century. Having a family history obliges me to get regular check-ups, which I’m happy to do (the experience and resultant feelings are covered in another poem, “As Opposed to Prayer,” and I thank Triggerfish Critical Review for publishing this one).
As it happens, March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, so plan accordingly, particularly if you are 50 or older. By the way, it’s an honor to support the amazing work of my friend Michael Sapienza, who is CEO of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance (check him and the amazing work he and his team do, here.)
The Things Prepping for a Colonoscopy Procedure Prepares You For…
The pre-procedure, a to-do list equal parts ordeal
and ritual preparing you for what will happen, is
A preparation of sorts for the many other things
you can expect, short and, you hope, longer term.
This preparation prepares you for mind-numbing
medications, for hospitals and those who fill them.
For paperwork and percentages covered by insurance,
but first it prepares you to be prepared for the things
You have no business being aware or afraid of when
preoccupied by what you spend your life preparing for:
Such as getting old, incontinence and the stoic allegiance
of a loved one—and/or your loneliness if that’s lacking.
In the dark, awake when you needn’t be; afraid when you
shouldn’t be (unless you should), and unable to disregard
A familiarity with the feeling of death, or those scents
emitted by aging bodies aided by chemical cruise-control.
Even if you’re lucky longer than you have any right
or intention of being, the end of one’s life is a menu
Of unsavory options, the worst being when death is
what you most desire to release you, finally, from life.
*Obligatory comic relief, courtesy of the inimitable Larry David (and his buddy Richard Lewis). Think: once you get your procedure, you too can have a colon contest with your best friend!
