metastasize

                                             "The Fabulous Racetrack of Death"

                                                                                   by Roberto Matta

it happened again today

i remembered you

though you rarely cross my mind

i don’t know why you did today

cross my mind that is

i think it was the boy that was walking down the hall

with his hairless head bald but not shaved

bald with the sickness that you knew so well

and he walked past me like he didn’t see me

but then he turned around and said hello miss

and i said hello toni

and he smiled that weak smile that he tried so hard to make work

and so i remembered you thierry with your smile

all that time ago

the memories fell on me like warm rain

…

and i remembered the day that it happened

we were all sitting in french lit class discussing l’étranger

and you kept dropping your pencil on the ground on purpose

just to make us laugh

and dr rizk kept turning from the board and telling you to

stop fooling around and fait attention

then she went around to get one of those pointers she loved to use

and you dropped your pencil again

and when you bent down to pick it up that last time

you banged your head on the bottom of your desk that didn’t budge

didn’t make room for less pain
but sat there solid and allowed you to hit it

and you came in after the weekend with a bandage on your head

and we all thought
how odd it is to need a bandage for a minor bang

but that wasn’t the end of that because after a couple of days

you came in with a larger bandage and said

they’d had to shave off some of your hair

right there where the bandage is you said 

they had to shave so they could stitch

but that wasn’t the end of that because after a couple more days

you came in with your whole head shaved
and wrapped in a large dressing

and we all got scared because this is not normal

but that wasn’t the end of that because after a couple more days

you came in with your whole head wrapped

and the bandage was tied all the way around your chin

and you wrote us a note and said

i can’t talk because it makes my head move

and that was when the darkness started to fall on us

our small group of eight in that french lit class and dr rizk the ninth

eight wannabe scholars who got together with their teacher

to read balzac and zola and maupassant for shits and grins

but that wasn’t the end of that because after a couple more days

thierry

you didn’t come back to school

and this happened in early february and dragged into its end

and i remember it because march was coming up
and i kept wondering

will thierry make it to my birthday party

i was young and selfish and thought of my own wants

and i wanted you there to make me laugh like you always did

so i called your maman and she said you weren’t doing well

but that i could visit you in the hospital

hospital i’d said thierry is in the hospital

so i asked my mother to drive me to the hospital
after school the next day

…
and i remembered
...

i remembered in drama class when

we went backstage to read our trojan women script

and work on our blocking and then decided to run off

and get a pizza on rd 9 and so we went

running and running and running with the wind in our hair

and the devil in our blood

and caught a cab right outside the school gate

and put together our coins so we could pay the driver

and went to get our pizza
and didn’t have enough money to each get our own
but had enough to buy one pizza and share it

one slice for each of us but back then one slice was enough

and we were all skinny as a rail and food was just food

but it wasn’t even about the pizza thierry

it was about the thrill we shared at having skipped class

and knowing we’d be in trouble ‘cause we’d already been seen by

mr marshall’s assistant as we ran off campus
while she was coming in

and she’d given us a look like i’ve caught you

and we’d looked through her like she was the air

and we’d laughed out loud ‘cause we knew we were getting it

so what the hell might as well live it up now

it wasn’t like we were going to be in less trouble

if we were gone for only half the class

…

and i remembered in french lit class
when you’d climbed up on a chair

while dr rizk was out in the hall with another teacher

and you’d set the clock above her board ahead 10 minutes

so dr rizk had dismissed us 10 minutes early

and we’d all exploded with laughter

and fell over each other as we ran down the hall

but then one of us had had a change of heart

and said this isn’t right and that one was you thierry

the very one who had changed the clock
and we’d all gone back to class and admitted our deed to dr rizk
and she’d cried and said

why would you do this to me what did i ever do to deserve this

and we’d all been mortified with guilt and gone up to dr rizk
one by one

and hugged her and said we were sorry we’d never do it again

…

and i remembered the countless times
we’d gotten together to study for those
ridiculous vocab tests dr stein gave us every week

75 words a week plus etymology plus define in your own words

plus two sentences for each word plus bla bla bla

…

and this happened

…

it happened

…

your maman and papa had waited twelve years for you to arrive

twelve years of tests and hopes and shattered dreams

as you had told us

and then i was conceived and then i was born and then i became

as you had told us

and maman and papa were the happiest people in the world

and that had been the end of that story

at that point

but now i was in this hospital room

sickly blue like the color of tired veins beneath parchment skin

and looking down at you

so weak and helpless in your bed that was not your bed

and listening to you as you said

they came and took me in this big ambulance nevine

and watching as you licked your brick-hard lips moist

the lights were crazy nevine

red and blue and red and blue and spinning and spinning

and your maman was sitting on a small chair by the window

her head in her hand

and the door opened and in came the doctor a doctor another doctor

and one of them asked me to leave thierry can you imagine the gall

but your maman said it’s okay she can stay

and the doctor said i’m sorry to inform you madame

but it appears the tumor is beginning to metastasize rapidly

and i’ll tell you this

my mother had made me read the fucking dictionary

every day from the day i was seven until i was seventeen

and in dr stein’s class we’d learned 75 vocab words a week

and even with my dictionary reading and dr stein’s vocab lists

i still didn’t know what the hell metastasize meant

so i reached my hand in my back pocket

and pulled out a pen and scribbled the word

on the inside of my hand because thierry

i didn’t know what the fuck that word meant

but i did know that word sounded pretty damn sinister

and tumor

who had said anything about a tumor

these doctors must be in the wrong room

but no

it seemed

somehow

that small bang on the desk

had triggered some dormant something in your head

or at least that’s what the doctor said

triggered and dormant

and i’d never heard the word trigger 
used outside of the context of a gun

he used the word trigger which

i can no longer hear without thinking of you thierry

and when i realized

when i realized

i remembered
...

all those countless times our small group of eight had held hands

like children

out on our school’s green soccer field under the cairo sun

and bounced around in a circle singing

sur le pont d’avignon

on y danse on y danse

sur le pont d’avignon

on y danse tous en rond

and we’d bounced around

high school seniors going on kindergarten

but i wanted to know what that word meant
metastasize

so i got home and pulled out my worn-out webster’s

with years of my graffiti all over it
i got home and voluntarily picked up that dictionary
and i looked up that word that
the doctor had let slip from his mouth
so swiftly so smoothly
metastasize 
and when i read the definition my mouth fell wide open 
like i was catching flies 
and there you were in your hospital bed that was not your bed 
thinking i don’t know what if you were even thinking anymore

…

and this happened

…

it happened

…

i came back to see you in your hospital room
that was not your room

and you looked at me and said

i want to fly to my silver castle in the sky

and i said

why not a golden castle

it seems a more becoming color don’t you think

and you said

no it’s too bright and in your face

a silver castle suits me just fine

and my heart went doink pinch bleed

because fuck

i was seventeen and you were eighteen
and death was not in our world

or not supposed to be

nor were those needles they had pinned
to your arms and your legs

or those tubes with
clear liquids going in and colored liquids coming out

or those horrifying doctor statements like

sometimes we have to poke several times before finding a vein

and i did not understand why

for the life of me

someone who had a tumor in his head should be
poked all over and bled

and i did not understand why

those doctors answered most of the questions they were asked with

i don’t know

or why the priest that your maman brought over
to pray for you said

i don’t know

or why the holistic healer who came with oils and crystals said

i don’t know

or why you couldn’t come to school anymore

or go swimming anymore

or come to my birthday party

i mean you had a tumor and we all knew you were dying

but why couldn’t they let you die doing what you wanted to do

…

and this happened

…

it happened

…

i came to visit you one day and you were all but gone

laying there with a tube sticking out of your chest

and tubes stuck in your arms and in your legs

and a strange looking pump stuck on your head

does it hurt i said

yes you said

do you cry i said

yes you said but not in front of maman

then

are you afraid of me nevine

do i scare you now

and

just a little i said i’ve never known anyone who… you know…

is dying you asked

yeah i said

i’m tired nevine you said

i’ll let you rest then

and i went

but not before clutching your hand between both of mine

and you asked when i die will it hurt

and it was my turn now to say i don’t know

because i didn’t know

and you asked me when i die where will i go

and i said i don’t know

and you asked me will they bury me underneath the ground

and i said i don’t know

but then

didn’t you say you wanted to fly to your silver castle in the sky

and I cried and you said don’t cry nevine

and you said my name as it should be said

avec un accent aigu sur le premier ‘e’

and i held your hand still and prayed

like i’d only prayed once before

…

and this happened

…

it happened

…

my mama was on her way to hospital to deliver my little sister

and i made a promise that if my mama came back alive if if…

and i had never finished the prayer…

but my mama did come back alive
with my healthy baby sister in tow

and i’d never given that unfinished promise a second thought

but now i prayed for you thierry
while this cancer metastasized and killed you

i prayed and said you were so young and so sweet and
so intelligent

and why you

but it was like my prayer was
falling on deaf ears and blind hearts

even as i was saying it

and it went unanswered

and you were taken away quietly and gently

on a warm and sunny day of may

23 days before we were all supposed to
graduate in the shadow of the sphinx

you were taken away

and i don’t think of you often thierry

but when i do it is always with a memory of your very blue eyes

and the cairo sun shining through your golden hair

and your childlike laughter

and us holding hands

you and me and jéhane and sandrine and
karim and hervé and sherine and tareq

and us going around in a circle on that green soccer field

in the middle of what should be an arid desert

holding hands and singing

sur le pont d’avignon

and i don’t know thierry
if you and i would know one another today

if you were still alive

or if we would be in touch

or if i would remember you or you would remember me

but i do know i remember you every now and then

when i see a boy walking down the hall

with his hairless head bald but not shaved

bald with the sickness that you knew so well

and he walks past me like he doesn’t see me

but then he turns around and says hello miss

you come into my head

you fall on me like warm rain

and when you do i feel that doink pinch bleed in my heart

and i tear up

but then i smile because how could i think of you and not smile

thierry

it would not be possible

and how could i think of you and not sing

we sing 

like children 

who will 

forever sing

and stay

children

forever