Grace Paley's Poem About Mortality: I had thought the tumors...

I had thought the tumors...  by Grace Paley  I had thought the tumors on my spine would kill me but the tumors on my head seem to be extraordinary competitive this week. For the past twenty or thirty years I have eaten the freshest most organic and colorful fruits and vegetables I did not drink I did drink one small glass of red wine with dinner nearly every day as suggested by The New York Times I should have taken longer walks but obviously I have done something wrong I don’t mean morally or ethically or geographically I did not live near a nuclear graveyard or under a coal stack nor did I allow my children to do so I lived in a city no worse than any other great and famous city I lived one story above a street that led cabs and ambulances to the local hospital that didn’t seem so bad and was often convenient                        In any event I am already old and therefore a little ashamed to have written this poem full of complaints against mortality which biological fact I have been constructed for to hand on to my children and grand— children as I received it from my dear mother and father and beloved grandmother who all ah if I remember it were in great pain at leaving and were furiously saying goodbye