Enemy Within (Poetry)

Who know what malig-
nancies we host — grown
soft in warm bodies?
Who named that foul beast
we fear the most? Who

first identified
and classified it —
same sign as the crab? —
since no connection
with that house of birth

Added to the list
of terrors that grow
outside or within
should genetics show
predisposition

Looming like ghosts on
a sensitive screen
who can guess what lum-
inescences mean
when flesh is possessed?

They do all their tests
it’s there in the blood
the sly monster lurks
proves no earthly good
confirming a name