It started in a cell far, far away
an extremity flicking switches on and off,
but now it has infiltrated the heart
and although it ended there, this was
not where the blood went.
All battles end in the heart,
where they become deathly benign and ironic:
a comical tragedy set in the family
of the human body; far from the original site
like migrating birds nesting in toxic fat, the nuclear dust
settles where hope has forgotten
to sail to; uncountable cells with no corners.
We burn the food, break the bones,
kill the brain cells, fuse the lightbulbs
and the mutation of cancer
cannot destroy the fortress heart.
It is always the last to concede
when all else has fallen.