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
