cancer spreads inside my mother like
some creature waking
and stretching its limbs. it started
in the center, liver,
galbladder, little barnicles clinging
on the inside of her abdomen then
uncurled, extended like fingers, unrolled like
tongues, rolls of tin foil and I
watched it fill her, stretch into
her ribs and spine and arms
and legs and behind her eyes to
settle in her head and bury little
timebombs in soft brain lobes.