George Bilgere

Audible Gasp

There was an audible gasp
When John Edwards made that comment
About waiting until his wife’s
Breast cancer was in remission
To get started on his affair
With what’s-her-name.

Remission is down
Near the southern tip of Baja.
That’s where cancer goes
To take a chill pill.

No oil spills or washed up syringes.
Just nice white beaches
And drinks with those funny umbrellas.
A place where nobody gets skin cancer.

It’s just so great.

Then, like everything else,
It gets boring. Like marriage. Every night
The same old breasts.

Cancer’s working on his short game.
He’s got a great tan, but so what.
It’s sad,

At the end of summer,
To pack up the car, drive to the airport.

Cancer and John Edwards
Are heading back home.
Back to the old grind.

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George Bilgere's latest book, Haywire, won the May Swenson Poetry Award in 2006, and he received the Ohioana Poetry Award in 2007. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio, and teaches at John Carroll University.