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Each Image Makes Its Way

by Deborah Bayer

The wall between us
is semi-permeable,
merely a membrane.
It would be translucent
if there were light here.
We are cells, the tiniest
units of her and we are
alive now, revitalized.
We endured the chemo
while our faster growing
sisters, the ones whose 
genes had been hijacked,
were killed. We were sad
and tired, so tired. Once
we were fed only push
push through the day.
Today, an idea comes
across the membrane,
the words and music
and rhythm to nourish it.
Each image makes its way
across the cytoplasm, joins,
integrates into our nucleus,
our DNA. Poems are a part
of us, an elixir for her.

Deborah Bayer is a physician who spent her early years in Brazil and now lives outside of Atlantic City, NJ. She has just celebrated the 5th anniversary of her last radiation therapy treatment. This poem was written when it dawned on her that she wasn't always going to feel exhausted.