Following the flow…
Jesus really does not like us drawing lines we do not want crossed…
Cartoon – Thanks to the brilliant Naked Pastor
So here are some recent thoughts, poems, favourites and a bit of politics…
With apologies to John Donne… but it’s because I should be cancer free!!
After 6 months, with brachytherapy and then three weeks of beam radiotherapy I’m signed off and Suella, my prostate cancer, is defeated Only the hormone treatment – hot flushes and all, remain for another 18 months.
Suella – the target for my beam radiotherapy:
No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thine own Or of thine friend's were. Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.
John Donne
I now have three tattoos
Still I worry about those over-inked boys and girls
Never mind their over-inked mums and dads
Yet...
I now have three tattoos
I now have three tattoos
Yet mere blobs, I'm horrified by their appearance
My three micro-dots of cruel Suella
Yes...
I now have three tattoos
I now have three tattoos
Her face inked onto my body
Her brain targets for the radiographer
So...
I now have three tattoos
I now have three tattoos
Can off-setting work for Cruella?
Does helping me off-set a withdrawn lifebelt?
Hmm...
I now have three tattoos
I now have three tattoos
But the rest is a lie, I have three "x mark the spots."
And off-setting won't work, because she'd need to care.
Even though...
I now have three tattoos.
Yet, unknowingly, she may help save me;
Yet, knowingly, others are thrown into a watery abyss.
Three years on and now waging war with Suella, my prostate cancer, it’s seriously time to return to the yoga mat once again…
It's been too long unlike by back Since last I stretched out properly So the mat calls once again Pain well masked The risk now worth it. No more floundering in the water Pools all shut, Lengths curtailed, Trunks in a bag, Extra kilos on the frame No gain without pain Proven a lie I gain those kilos whilst avoiding the pain So back to yoga, eighteen months on No embarrassment here It's just me and Adriene And the pause button Back bends - Side bends - Forward bends - All now very little bends. Balance - gone for now Warriors, very timid One, two and fall over with three Dog down, still a place of comfort But now - bring that right leg thru… You can just edge your foot forward with your hand… No… I have to "take a knee" not because of black lives mattering (and they really do!) Or not even Game of Thrones and a FFS Foreign Secretary But because my leg is stuck way back there. I don't flow forward I raggedly crank my way forward And just about get there in the end. Heading towards Savasana And she throws in Happy Baby Happy baby maybe - not a happy grand-dad Not even eighteen months ago! Why oh Why do I even bother to try? But then we hit corpse And bits of my body remember, (Like one of those foam mattresses) The joy of stopping yoga Move over in the bed, Adriene I need a gentler model… But hopefully just for now.
Hopefully I’m welcome back, again…
