Women Getting Cancer in the Rain

The commercial promises

Women getting cancer

In the rain

At least

That’s what it seems

To promise
To Adella

Sitting at home
Wondering where
All the soap operas went

Who can tell

If the commercial offers
Something else

Who can tell
What it offers
At all?

There are women

They are dancing

They are happy

It’s raining

And they’re getting cancer

Or maybe they already have cancer

All we know is that

By the end of the sixty-second commercial

We have women

We have dancing

We have rain

And we have lots

And lots

Of cancer

And Adella has cancer
And it's sunny outside
And she's inside
On her couch
Eating chips
And trying to find something to watch
On daytime tv

The last thing she feels like doing
Is dancing
In the rain
Or otherwise

So it’s anybody’s guess

What the hell

Is going on
In the commercial

It would seem to imply

That rain gives women cancer

Or that dancing in the rain

Gives women cancer

Or that the smile you plaster across your face
When you realize that it's okay you have cancer
Turns your cancer into something
That makes you want to samba
On a studio backlot somewhere

Or maybe all the commercial is saying
Is that women who have cancer

Enjoy dancing in the rain

Who’s to say?

Adella never enjoyed dancing anyway
She was always the person
Who stood off to the side
And took in the room

Maybe she took in too much
Over the years

Maybe she should have dived in
But again--

Who's to say?
The women are in the streets

And a jubilant anthem plays

While they skip past the gutters

Meanwhile side effects are listed

By another woman
With a soothing voice

So soothing you barely notice
She's talking about mouth sores
And profuse vomiting

Just a disembodied voice

Quickly listing off

Things like short-term memory loss

And hair loss

And weight loss

And loss of appetite

Leading to the weight loss

None of these things

Seem to bother the women
Dancing in the rain

Celebrating their cancer

They go beyond
The studio backlot
Into a world that welcomes them
And their cancer

They find swing sets

To play on

And cookies to bake

In homes that look
Warm and inviting

But they never look as happy

As they do

When a song that sounds-like-but-isn’t Motown--

(Who can afford the rights?)

--Plays in the background

They run across a field

Past a meadow

Into various backyards

Looking very healthy
For women who are taking medication

That could render them bald, gaunt

And unable to remember

How they wound up

Dancing in the rain

Adella, in spite of herself
Wishes to be friends with these women

She wants to go take a painting class with them
And drink wine
And talk about that article in that magazine
That says lemons can cure you
If you eat seventeen of them a day

But the women seem too busy
To make new friends

They're having barbecues now
And doing laundry
And laughing at a joke
Adella would love to hear

Their kids come and hug them

Their husbands make them hot dogs

It’s summer and spring
And autumn

And it's the best of all
Those things

Nothing sad
Nothing unfortunate
Cancer has truly
Made the world
A perfect place

Maybe the rain made it perfect

Maybe that’s why the women

Were dancing in it

Maybe the rain that exists

In commercials

For anti-inflammatory medication

Has special

Restorative properties

That these women

And only these women

Know about

Maybe these women

Have summoned the rain

Maybe they’re not women at all

But witches

Who are often women

But also magical

Maybe these women

Called upon the rain

To cure their cancer

Maybe their dance

Is how they rid themselves

Of it

Or maybe they’re happy

Because they don’t know

They have cancer

Or that they’re getting cancer

Or that it’s raining

Before you know it

The commercial is over

And there’s another commercial on

And this one is advertising

Pizza for blind people

Or maybe it’s a commercial for sunglasses

Or pepperoni

Or deep dish pans

Adella finds it hard to say

What she's seeing

Or why she's seeing it

And all it does is rain

And rain

And rain

And nobody knows
When it's going
To stop