How to Become Your Own Super Shero
By Glenis Redmond
Facing death
I know that there is more to life
than what we all can see.
In the ethers
I hold onto invisible threads
of what Mama and Grandma passed down:
golden and silver cords of hope, courage, and faith.
With Multiple Myeloma
I have lost more than
the 20-year-old brown locks
that hung down my back.
I have lost my hand and heart
extended for 27 years
taking poetry to students
across the country
across the world.
I lost the music in my smooth stroll.
I have not danced for ten months.
I lost my breath––
the capacity of my lungs
punished by pneumonia twice.
I lost my hair,
my bald head gets looks: outright stares.
People cannot hide their questions
or hide the horror
scrawled on their faces.
My self-portrait is a Frida Kahlo-esque painting.
My illness turns me inside out
paints both the seen and unseen.
I am surreal.
I am lesions on skull, clavicle and femur.
I am cracked bone and marrow siphoned
I am weekly blood draws.
I have had to hold my own hand
to save my own life––
2.5 million stem cells needed
I summoned 12.5 million, a record.
Don’t believe them when they say,
“This procedure will not hurt.”
I am High Dose Chemotherapy.
If the cure for cancer does not kill me, I’ll heal
the shadows on my face
are maps of where I have walked,
landings without light.
53 days later, I am lighter,
a shapeshifter on this path
I did not choose.
Yet, between the veils
I morph into this dreamlike mist.
I feel like both an angel/ancestor already.
Time is surreal.
I am glad to escape death this go-'round,
but I saw the Grim Reaper twice––
his scythe ready to level me.
I have come through this cancerous fire,
finished in the kiln at the highest heat,
a hard-won beauty lit from within.
I duck and dodge
Summon strength as:
Warrior Woman, a Black Southern Sage.
I meet the looks I get with a direct gaze.
Stare translated: If cancer couldn’t kill me, you sho can’t.
About the Poet
Glenis Redmond is the First Poet Laureate of Greenville, South Carolina. She is a 2023 Poet Laureate Fellow selected by the American Academy of Poets. Glenis has published six books of poetry. Her latest books are The Listening Skin (Four Way Books), Praise Songs for Dave the Potter, Art by Jonathan Green, and Poetry by Glenis Redmond (University of Georgia Press). Glenis received the highest arts award in South Carolina, the Governor’s Award, and was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors in 2022. The Listening Skin was shortlisted for the Open Pen America and Julie Suk awards. Glenis has performed nationally and internationally from Hawaii to Haiti. She has toured in England: London, Liverpool and Luton. She speaks for the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) US. She presented in Muscat, Oman, in 2016 and virtually for students in Guatemala and El Salvador for Juneteenth in 2023. Glenis is a veteran and a former Captain in the Army Reserves. She is a medical advocate. Glenis is a mother of twin daughters, Amber and Celeste. She is a Grandmother (Gaga) to Julian, Paisley, and Quinn. Glenis believes poetry is the mouth that speaks when all other mouths are silent.
Photo Credit: Eli Warren