Disease
This author is a recipient
of the Sigma Tau Delta Award
Lexi Birks
is the author of Diary of Her Disappearance (2015) and Elimination (2016), along with shorter works of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. She is a senior at St. Ambrose University, earning a BA in English and a minor in Art. You can visit authorlexibirks on Facebook for updates on her latest work.
There it was. It was back.
It always came back, feathering
into her thoughts, intertwining
its dark tendrils with her memories.
Tears spilled down
like shards of glass, carving
rivers of salt until
her cheeks were stripped of youth.
There’s no stopping it,
her mother said, waving the cigarette in her hand.
Drugs, therapy, alcohol, nothing…
Nothing will stop it from killing you.
To her, cancer was a rainbow,
a glimmer of hope as
a means to an end
for a life unwanted.
Her mother was right.
Cancer wasn’t the only disease
that could steal the breath from your lungs
and leave you gasping for air.