step-father's marrow is a white man's, that's steadily killing him Cassandra (Mother) says graft versus host disease is a war he'll certainly lose Snakes have licked the ears of hers and mine, the fall of Troy is charted by doctors with monotone voices and weary stares Body stripped bare, he's already burned upon the pyre, Chemotherapy Ultraviolet scorching, patches of crusty flesh In dreams he plays a giant mystical organ with me, keys made of book bindings and slabs of gold, that slid beneath my fingers to a melody not my own He smiles, sways to the chaotic notes and when all's gone silent and still he stares at me; "The battles we lose inside ourselves will always kill us in the end." I beg Apollo to blindfold us until the fall.