“Looking is a narrow task between the eyes, the hands, and the observed. It is a vibration of the three, which manifests the continuity of the drawn line.”
Juan Paez (1973) is a Colombian artist who lives in New York. @tallercaudapodo (Instagram)
The Cancer Patient Observes Weeds Poetry byChristian Ward
CW: Mention of Illness
The wild nettles overrunning the patch of land behind the sports centre remind me of the unruliness of my disease. Their pale green, a spearmint tint in the early spring light, has colonised almost every patch, overtaking bluebells as big as my pinkie, silk dresses of cow parsley, and passion flowers opening like satellites. The scene invokes absurdity: Did one of my lymph nodes sneak out to take notes? Perhaps not. I remind myself everything is purposeful. The nettles harbour aphids to be consumed by ladybirds. Their young violet flowers, an offering for bees. Peacock butterfly caterpillars feed on nettles. The chrysalis of my body stirs in my sleep. Something twitches. Stings.
Christian Ward is a UK-based writer who has recently appeared in The Hemlock, South Florida Poetry Journal, The Dewdrop, Dodging the Rain, The Seventh Quarry, Bluepepper, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Amazine andRye Whiskey Review. His first poetry collection, Intermission, is out now on Amazon. @fighting_cancer_with_poetry (Instagram)