Deborah Nuber wrote this article.
In the dreamy, tranquil warmth of awareness
Her fears are banished
Her mortality now distant
She is empowered by her triumph
Her heart soars on the wings of new hope
As the woman awakens.
Was it real, this silent foe
That threatened to destroy her plans and dreams?
Like a child’s dream that seems so real
That conjures a dreaded fear of an unseen enemy
Her enemy has been overcome
As the woman awakens
She is whole and unspoiled
She struggles against the dreamy state
Anxious to return to life’s journey
Yet murmuring just outside her awareness
Are haunting words that mar her victory
As the woman awakens
Voices fail to console her
As clarity returns and the dream vanishes
Her fleeting triumph a tearful memory
She realizes her loss as those closest attempt comfort
And she once again faces her mortality
As the woman awakens
This poem was part of the “Lila’s Breast” MPH project at UMDNJ. Students were required to write a poem concerning a cancer display consisting of three plaster castings of women who had a breast removed. Students were assigned a specific point of view (the wound; the surgeon, the missing breast; the cancer; the woman as she awakens; the plaster castings; etc.)
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