Lurking
By Rachel
Murderer! Torturer!
Just a small piece of DNA
Lurking beside green eyes and left handedness.
A grandmother, suffering for decades.
Surgeries, hospitals, wheelchairs.
Skin dry, taut, gray.
Last days in a bed, unmoving.
Giving hugs with the last of her strength.
An uncle, from diagnosis to grave in nine months.
Surgery, chemotherapy, promise of experimental treatments.
Skin yellow, swollen, bald.
“Short” illness.
Somehow, always, still smiling.
How many more?
Two aunts and a father.
Odds are it’s in one.
Nine cousins and me.
Odds are it’s in a few.
Gardner’s syndrome.
Colon cancer.
Kidney failure.
Liver failure.
Many names for a small piece of DNA
Lurking beside green eyes and left handedness.
Murderer. Torturer.
We wait.