Saturday, March 21, 2020: National Women's Poetry Month: Viola Weinberg Spencer's poem "For Better or Worse"

For Better or Worse

Could I not love you, want you again

Across these many ragged miles?

Is there something on the road?

Be it rut, choke or shabby ditch?

What keeps you from these arms

I know I was never the thin one

The young one, the shy one

With head bobbing like an apple

But look, I have loved you through

Chemo, through all the things they

Did to me? Do you not want me

As I sit here, bathed and oiled

But not precisely the same

Nor will I ever be? Do you not

Want to find another way that

Would make us whole again?

Is there not a way?

Won’t you tell me, my love?

Won’t you caress my white head

And nuzzle my hairless parts

Until our hearts beat like bongos

Until our hearts twist together

Like hands clasping, grasping

For the juicy meat of better or worse

© 2020 Viola Weinberg Spencer

Bio: Viola Weinberg is a poet and writer, and a survivor (thus far) of Stage Four Renal Cell Cancer, a rare cancer without a cure). She was the first Poet Laureate of the sprawling capitol city of Sacramento, California, where she "rode circuit" as a literary ambassador to schools, libraries, state office buildings and gatherings in parks and cafes. In her earlier writing life, Viola was a radio reporter with a seat in the Capitol Press Corps. 
Widely published with ten books of poetry, she is also the founder of the Tough Old Broads, a group of four close friends who share 200 collective years of writing. The TOBs produced a collection of their works published by Cold River Press called Tough Enough.