On February 4th, World Cancer Day was celebrated, promoted by the UICC - Union for International Cancer Control - and endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
This day serves as an important reminder to reflect on what institutions and individuals can do together to combat cancer. "Closing the Care Gap" is the central theme of the 2024 campaign. The slogan draws attention to the importance of understanding and acknowledging the inequalities in cancer care worldwide.
Below is a poem from someone who has already lived through this terrible reality:
Like a thief
who unfairly robs
the fruit of labor
of who, on honesty,
establishes life,
so you too, damn Cancer,
you furtively wander
in the bodies of many people,
and, without letting you hear,
without being seen
you bring ruin and death
wherever you settle in.
You are already evil
from the begining
spreading evil
on your dangerous journey
to those who,
unaware and innocent,
take you with them
Selfish and overbearing,
you only think about yourself,
at the expense of cells
who act for the good
and to make people feel good.
Your activity,
when discovered,
it's heartbreaking
for those who,
without wanting it,
held you
and made you grow
Who suffers your violence
feels destroyed and betrayed,
discouraged and disappointed,
and the anguish of death,
that you carry with you,
invades every particle
of his soul.
Against you, predatory parasite,
only aggressive feelings
of anger and aversion,
desperately fighting to destroy you
and drive you out permanently.
The battle is long and tough,
health is weak and precarious,
forces are weak and insecure
but the spirit, not the spirit.
The battle invigorated it,
making it wise,
aware,
balanced.
The spirit has learned
what is essential in life.
Yes, only the essentials remain standing.
The judgment of others no longer matters:
You are what you are.
The spirit has learned, by experience,
to put "things" right,
to separate,
to distinguish,
to detach from worldly “things”:
envy,
appearance,
shallowness.
Useless and frivolous “things”
that the spirit
doesn't know what to do with it.
The spirit has learned from the Eternal Spirit
to live in human reality,
more intensely,
with heart,
gaze,
mind,
and,
at the same time,
in the Infinite,
where the spirit feels immersed,
where every struggle will end forever
and only
Love,
Peace
Health
will reign forever.
