Don’t Name Them
Dedicated to all the young people, teens and children I witnessed fighting cancer at the Teen and young persons oncology ward where my son made his own final fight, a salute to the humility and love these places are embalmed in.
Don’t name them
Don’t name them
Too many names
No names
Names can
Be missed
Your name
Their name
So no names
No religion
All faiths die
No colour
Whats colour
No country
No wealth
It doesn’t
Matter
No language
No measure
of intelligence
All tongues
Are stilled
For life’s
Accounting
You
Child with
Leukaemia
You are beautiful
You child suffering
Sarcomas
You are
Beautiful
Over there
Child with
Broken chromosome
You are beautiful
I don’t need your
Label
To know your
Beauty
I know your beauty
We know
Your beauty
See your beauty
Feel your beauty
Thank you
For sharing
For giving
Your beauty
Your unfathomable
Courage
Allowing us to
Love you.
David in his beloved All Blacks Jersey, proud Kiwi.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I imagine many tears were shed whilst it was written.
It certainly brought me to tears.
Thank you marvo. It was written as I sat next to my son having chemo, and I looked around the room and saw all these beautiful smiling teen faces, we were on a teen cancer ward, their bravery was amazing, and I was struck by the the reality that it doesn’t matter what colour you are, rich or poor, any faith and culture…. cancer doesn’t care, as we shouldn’t in society. It was one of those poems where you just write that flow of consciousness down as you observe and probably took 5 minutes. But the kids left me humbled… Read more »
I published writer friend of mine lost his youngest daughter to brain cancer 2 years ago. It’s an insidious disease and your minimalist poem suites the subject.
Many congratulations on this poem being chosen as Poem of the Week by ABCtales.com
Well done. Best wishes.Luigi
Thank you Luigi, yes it has been chosen on ABCtales. It was so easy to write, maybe 3 minutes sitting looking around the ward at teens with cancer, but its nearly impossible for me to read out loud.
Made me cry. What a beautiful, beautiful boy.
As the mother of two sons (and a daughter) I cannot begin to comprehend your grief.
He’s waiting somewhere. That is my confirmed belief.
Alison x
Thank you Alison. I’m sorry to have made you cry. It was a poem I wrote in about three minutes sitting on the ward with David, and all the other teens around us, with no hair or eyebrows, form all these different backgrounds, faith, cultures, a millionaires daughter, colours, but they were all so beautiful, and smiling, the girls never wore wigs on the ward. and so they were all very androgynous and beautiful. Of the sixteen families we grew close to, if he was admitted because of a temp spike or for chemo it was for a minimum of… Read more »
Oh, my friend! I have immense sympathy and empathy for you. Your poem very powerfully positions the reader’s mind to have an inkling of what you experienced. The bravery, courage, and spirit of child sufferers are just undiscribable in a way. You could be forgiven in wondering if – not so many years from the womb – they are in any case much closer to their God in their starting point: A place where the fairy dust of life is bright and sparkling, and death holds not the fear it shadows on the older mind. Your description of David’s victory… Read more »