There is not one tumor on this pedestal but seven,
each piece of clear glass pulled apart
to reveal a red rim.
I get the idea, and I don’t.
If these glass globes were eyeballs
instead of tumors,
it would look as if somebody had been crying.
If they were tears
instead of eyeballs or tumors,
the would look more like cancer than cancer does.
Tears made of glass
never dry.
Tears tinged with blood look like tumors,
even tumors too small for the eyes to see.
Felicia Mitchell teaches English and creative writing at Emory & Henry College in Virginia, where she recently received the James A. Davis Faculty Award given by the Alumni Association. Her recent chapbook is The Cleft of the Rock (Finishing Line Press, 2009).
© 2013, Felicia Mitchell
Halfway Down the Stairs 