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Cancer Survivor in the City

The city
etched her face
into a pie chart

wedges of a nose,
mouth,
eyes shadowed,

each an escapee
from the big
picture,

a radioactive half-life
not counting
piano bars

hidden beneath subways,
black keys
minoring in months,

until Central Park
at a water fountain,
she

leaned her mouth
close in
for a single sip

as her parents stood
on either side
raised left and right

hands and lifted
her feet
from the ground