Ten novel cultivars of cancer

Scientists hail revolutionary breast cancer breakthrough

The Independent, 19 April 2012

With a paper in Nature the head of the hydra was toppled

and the number of things for a woman to dread decupled;

there's one you get from wearing your genes too tight

and another from smudging jam on the blueprint of your life;

and then there’s letting your helix unfurl like a hernia —

that’s three — four is a writ from your long-suffering mother,

and five a curse announced by a previously mute mutation;

next comes the incurable lure of sweet-cured bacon,

then amassing a critical mass of tear-stained tissue;

and if your permanent tan casts a long, dark shadow,

that’s eight; and those nights on tequila coming roosting home

makes nine: enough for a cat, let alone a mouse.

But if those don’t get you don’t congratulate yourself

just yet, perhaps you've already been lucky far too long.

(c) 2012 Slush Poet