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"The Son"

Creator:

Marjorie Maddox

Published:

March 28, 2024

October 21, 2021

Read "The Son", a breast cancer poem; the poet wrote this for the son of someone who died of breast cancer.|"No, I don’t know you, but I did know the No of your mother howling the O of horror, the Ah of acknowledgment. Ah, Noah, I did know the hand that handed you diagnosis wrapped in a poem wrapped in No, in Ah, in the complicated fabric of love that looked no didn’t look yes, did like God terrified or gloating. I did not know I did not not know I do. Ah, no. The clean gaze of the eye. The cracking laughter. Ah, you know the joy she twirled, how she whirled the world around you, the fierce, proud, Mama-love churning into Ah. I do know the way she tongued your name. No Ah with no maybes, just a capital YES despite fury pecking at the underside of her voice, her Yes, I’ll be and be for you, and you, and yours; champion and longer than breath that curled around us, stretched taut, then slipknot-tied tight in anger or joy or weeping or awe. Ah. Noah, I did not know. I do."

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Creators:

Marjorie Maddox

Published:

March 28, 2024

October 21, 2021

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