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October Again

by Jan McDaniel

Reddish black and yawing like the jaws of hell
Not teaparty pink.
Mastectomy disfigures
Chemo is poison not therapy
Alone in the room for radiation
Fight for reconstruction
Life dims to a blur.
Scarier than Halloween,
Pink plastic fills your stores.
Pretty ribbons mask my pain.
Two percent for research?
Don't care to donate more?
Octobers bring no cure
Each pinker than the last.
You sell my suffering,
Drag me through nightmares
I've visted before.
I hope you never know
How this feels.
If you did,
You wouldn't sell.

A former newspaper reporter, Jan McDaniel is the author of 30 published novels and four nonfiction books. She lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and belongs to the Chattanooga Writers Guild and Chattanooga Photographic Society. Read her Creativity in the 21st Century blog at: http://www.myspace.com/janmcdaniel .