In black and white

 

She’d open up lives on canvas :

the infant’s inked footprints in black

and the marbled tombstone in white,

the mushroom cloud of the nuclear bomb

all painted in black and white

while they conveyed ideas

dominated by shades of grey.

The picture of her chest snapped by the machine

baking her tissues with a beam of rays

was in black and white, too.

When my white-sleeved hand

held it up against the glowing screen,

I saw cannonballs* piercing her lungs.

The back of my mind wished

it was just another picture

painted by her.

Truth is not always what we wish for.

 

*Multiple pulmonary nodules on chest x-ray are known commonly as cannon ball secondaries. Cannon balls indicate poor prognosis.