Bio
BN Oakman, formerly an academic economist, has published many poems in journals and magazines in Australia, the UK and the USA and two full length collections, In Defence of Hawaiian Shirts (IP 2010) and Second Thoughts (IP 2014) plus two chapbooks. In 2016 the distinguished Australian actor John Flaus recorded 25 of his poems for a CD titled 'What did I know?' Bruce was a Pushcart Prize nominee in 2015. www.bnoakman.com.
BN Oakman
ligna melanoma maligna
After the swift, sudden diagnosis,
while we sat trapped in the grip of
traffic, you told me you'd not wish
to live if I were to die. I said if I'd
endured so many treks through the
arid valleys of treatments, drunk so
deeply from the brackish springs
of cures, I too might feel as you.
Weeks later, after my reprieve, you
seemed surprised by my evident joy.
I could think of nothing to say. Days
passed until I knew to ask: What fool
would not glory in being alive if they
might remain with one such as you?