Cancer Songs, by Ron Graves

Cancer Songs

by Ron Graves

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	1.	Arseassination 00:55
	2.	Black 00:59
	3.	Beating Biting 01:29
	4.	The Significance of Beauty 01:24
	5.	On Winning 00:47
	6.	Tube Map 01:33
	7.	Arm of Horses 02:02
	8.	Love in the Time of Man Flu 02:05
	9.	Fox 01:54
	10.	Here Come The Zaps 00:52
	11.	Side Effects 00:48
	12.	Radioarse 01:30
	13.	Tumour Shit 01:03
	14.	Bluebirds 01:00
	15.	Exquisite Awake 00:59
	16.	Me and My Lymph Node 01:09
	17.	Being 01:13
	18.	Caruthers 01:25
	19.	Post Operative Care 03:33
	20.	Physio 01:54
	21.	Plastic Fantastic Drippy Dressing Day 01:53
	22.	The Fifth Column 00:53
	23.	Healing 02:15
	24.	Afterword 00:33

about

I didn’t intend to produce such a book but poems often come unbidden and demanding, for good or ill, to be written down. Nor do I intend this to be some sort of primer for how to deal with cancer but there are a few things I can confirm for anyone who is interested:

1) You can't fight cancer. Doctors, nurses, surgeons, radiographers and everyone else involved in your case constitute a powerful force and they really can do the fighting.
2) Your job is to cooperate with the people mentioned above.
3) There is no ‘Big C’. There are lots of afflictions that are cancerous and many of them can, now, be cured or controlled by treatment. And, once again, that’s the work of those mentioned in the first point.
4) Life is beautiful and you need to get on with it. We are all mortal and your diagnosis has drawn your attention to that.

The best I can say is that our National Health Service is the socialised expression of collective love and we must fight for it whenever, and from whatever source, it is threatened.

This collection of poems is dedicated to the NHS staff.