Sheer Will

My dad had 3 kidneys - but no one knew it
One was hurt when he was young -
Playing football
With friends.

The doctors said it was cancer -
They didn't know it was a 3rd kidney;
And they treated him
With so much radiation
That he had purple scars on his abdomen
And his lower back.

When he died at the age of 62,
They said
His organs
Had disintegrated-

What kept him alive
Was sheer will.


"Sometimes a man whom doctors have given up for dead clings to life by a sheer effort of will. Life holds many unfathomable mysteries which the physical sciences alone cannot explain."

-Daiskau Ikeda-

(The Human Revolution, Vol 1, No. 1. page 23)