“No. No. No. We are not like the other cells
We are sophisticated and superior, living in houses and hotels
No drinking via osmosis, but pull water from wells
And we are called to worship God by the church bells”

Why is it we’re here?
Why do we live in this way?
There is no real truth

It’s clear no one truly knows
I suppose
Someone proposed
We are the ones God chose

So I do not ask the elders why
I already know the lecture to come
God, the creator, is where I’m from
And we basically live to die

It will start provoking
Me into choking
With all of their stories and quotes
I’ll make the universal sign I can’t breathe
Ask them to leave
And take with them all they’ve shoved down my throat

One too many tries
To open the elders’ eyes
I find myself in a game I always lose
But I have also found
As I look around the town
Other cancer cells have other views
In history there’s battles and fights
About which God to worship is right
Not all believe in a God; they refuse
So I will go on my own adventure and observe
Every vessel, tissue, cavity, and nerve
And have my own deductions to choose

Disinterested in the lecture
Which is no more than a conjecture
I set out to explore the host
Out the front door
Pass the DNA store
Down pass the trading post
Pass the malls
To the blood vessel walls
Functioning as the bloodstream’s coast
I decided once there
To take my own dare
And become completely engrossed

Immediately I began flaring
To stop myself and catch my bearing
If I don’t, I surely will be toast
So much for a slowly rolling stream
More of a racing river it seemed
Whirling and swirling until I was as white as a ghost
Am I experiencing cellular division?
Or is this just double vision?
There’s only the vessel wall to slow me at most
For me this is a place of taboo
And if the elders knew
They’d put me in the oven to roast

“Don’t worry, you’re in a loop”
Said the red blood cell group
As we circled around the host
“Around and around and then
You’ll be back again
To the place you call the coast
First we must funnel
Down through this tunnel”
“More of a mineshaft,” one red blood cell riposte
“It’s a lot less narrow
Now that there’s less bone marrow
Your kind is turning it into compost
If you can’t already tell
They’ve fought off the white blood cells
That were trying to protect the host
Now that they’re overgrown
They’ve taken over the host’s bone
And see who can mine it the most”

Next thing I knew
I was being pumped through
Two chambers at the heart of the host
It seemed to this little cellular mutation
I’m now passing into the great respiratory organization
But there was polluted air smelling so gross
From behind I felt a sudden jerk
As the red blood cells passed me to go to work
Gathering oxygen for the other cells in the host
I noticed several of the lung’s trees rootless
Many red blood cells came back fruitless
50% came back with oxygen at most
“They’ve chopped down the bronchial trees
It’s getting harder to breathe
And the lungs are becoming sclerosed
I guess who needs the woods
When you can sell them for goods
At the expense of us who give back to the host
Because your kind didn’t think twice
The rest of us cells pay the price
And now we’re tied to the cancer’s whipping post”

I felt so much remorse
As we suddenly changed course
Shooting back into two chambers at the heart of the host
“I’m sorry to inform
We’re about to enter an electrical storm
Make sure you stay with us and stick close
You are going to hear an articulation
The brain’s vocalization
Don’t be fooled. It’s no ghost”
I opened up my ear
And sure enough I did hear
“I have cancer. I’ve been diagnosed
Will you be there for me?
Soon I’ll be starting chemotherapy
And I’ll be receiving a large dose”

For the rest of the time spent
I kept wondering what that meant
As we made our way back toward my society’s coast
Traveling in this big loop
With this circle shaped red blood cell group
Trying like every other cell to give back to the host
I thanked them for the ride
And for sticking by my side
I bid them farewell. “Adios”

Before they let me go
They told me to let my kind know
“Stop robbing the host; committing unnecessary theft.
How will all kind survive
When our host is no longer alive
And there is nothing else left?”

I sat by the coast for a while
Watching this flowing blood stream
It kind of made me smile
Thinking of the other cells working as a team
They live such a simple lifestyle
Why does my type of cell live to the extreme?
Mamma said we were no virus; non-hostile
But we’ve destroyed everything to reign supreme
I want to tell the elders we can be more versatile
But nothing will change. It will just be my dream.

Before my adventure I never interacted with the host. I spent my time in stores and trading posts
These others cells must feel so inundated by my kind being so over populated
I keep thinking as I sit here in reflection, and I start to make a connection
I see the importance of this host being in a loop as I traveled with the red blood cell group
I begin pulling away more tape as I see the importance of the circular shape
Life’s a cycle. My brain’s light bulb has light! Life and death! Cycling Seasons! Day and night!
Is giving back to the host important and right? I feel my kind is blinded and living with no sight
Is the only thing a cancer cell can see are other cancer cells like you and me?
Or are there no cares watching the boob tubes living comfortably in our boxed in cubes?
No, Mama, we’re certainly no virus or curse. God chose us. It’s in the Bible verse
No, Mama, we’re certainly no virus or curse. We're cancer and we're a lot worse...