by Casey Wolf
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I don’t want one more birthday
I want a thousand
ten thousand
I want to live so long and so well
that all my fears die of old age
and I wait my stiffness out
outlast all infirmity
lose interest in whether I’m
remembering right or not
tire my fatigue
bore my hesitation
give flight to every
impulse toward life I ever have
and spend my days protecting insects
nurturing plants
feeding giving water
giving shelter and a sense that is
the absence of all panic
to birds and rats and dogs
I want to live so long my crusts
crack and split and fall away
till I respond with tenderness to those
as brittle as that near-forgotten me
Casey Wolf was lucky to attend a Callanish retreat before her cancer treatment, and the support she received changed her experience of cancer dramatically--as well as that of close friends and family who have had cancer since then. She regularly attends Callanish writing circles, and her heart is a softer, happier place through knowing the people there