Face Down

Face Down
2003

Removed street clothes
Waited for radiation room
Waited in line with others to kill cancer
Cancer cells crawled through my caucus, hiding
Is this radiation treatment safe?
Don’t worry the doctor knows best
Face down in fetal position
Line up the lasers
Focus radiation gun to zap my back
Face down on a black table draped with a white sheet
Can’t see the man hiding behind a lead wall
Face down
No identity just a body on the slab
Bare ass exposed to the radiation gun
Hovering over my body
Face down head in my hands
Can’t look eyes closed
Fetal position
Total submission
Oh dear God kill my cancer!
Don’t move the voice said
I won’t
Don’t breathe
I won’t
Radiation gun zapped my colon
Oh God deliver me from this disease
Don’t worry
Only five minutes
You’re done now
That wasn’t so bad was it?
See you next week Mr. Beckstein