Dear Cancer

Dear Cancer,

You introduced me to fear.

Five years old, I helplessly watched your attack on my mother,

her body falling,

hair falling, skin paling.

Your destructive tentacles grasping her, draining her life before my eyes

And then you let her go.

My mother came back to life.

My family tried to return to normalcy,

but still we could not escape.

Our lives forever altered,

no more of our favorite foods, no longer allowed out in the sun.

Endless doctors visits “just to be sure.”

Ten years later.

We finally found our new “normal.”

And once again you returned,

hellbent on destroying my mother, my family.

But she would not be defeated,

and once more you moved on to find your next victim.

Now I live my life, eternally worried that at any moment you will return.

Constantly wondering “Who will be next”,

my father, my sister, my best friend,

Me?