Icon Hours

A visit to a friend with terminal cancer.

Icon Hours


I play
with my babies
littering their living
room floor with crackers
and toys.

He had
his wife unplug
the IV especially
for our visit
this day

of morphine hazes
and my memory of a lady
who warned against this visit;
who said, "I know it's crazy
but I'd be afraid my kids
would catch cancer."

He drifts away
on a couch voyage
so distant-
Will he return?

In an instant,
he's back-
beckoned by
my two year old's
summons.

A smile
and his cachectic hand
accepts her
pink-packeted offering
of low calorie
sweetener.