〔五月二十四日〕

五月二十四日
那一天
一張X光片
一通長途電話
晨曦　網住
癌症散落的身影

窗外黃脈刺桐
層層疊疊的綠葉子
包裹著詩穎的癌細胞

詩穎　我的心肝寶貝
肺部的癌細胞　阿爹搆不著
好像遠在英國留學的你

青春剛剛冒出的花苞
死神卻把螢火蟲似的癌細胞
放入肺部裡繁殖

這個玩笑
甜蜜的家庭　921大地震
找不到逃生的出口

心情不知要如何　放慢
歲月的腳步　找尋
生命細微的光　緩慢

附記：詩穎咳嗽咳個不停，可能得肺結核，2012年5月24日，到台北市衛生局檢查，醫生判斷是肺癌。

───

〔May 24th〕

May 24th
That day
A piece of x-ray film
A long distance phone call
At dawn’s first light, captured in a net
Cancer’s scattered silhouette

The variegated coral tree outside the window
Layers and layers of green leaves
Enfolded Sherrie’s cancer cells

Sherrie, my precious darling
The cancer cells in your lungs, Dad couldn’t reach them
Like when you were faraway studying abroad in England

The newly sprouted flower buds of youth
Yet Death inserted the firefly-like cancer cells
Into the lungs to multiply

This joke
A sweet family, the 921 earthquake
Cannot find an exit to escape

I don’t know how to, slow down, my mood
The footsteps of the years, seek
The fine light of life is, slow

Note: Sherrie had been coughing non-stop, perhaps she had tuberculosis. Examined at the Taipei City Department of Health on May 24th 2012, doctors diagnosed her with lung cancer.