Brother, when you told us we were Cancer,
I think you misdiagnosed us. You see, Ryan, your family is not a tumor,
We're toxin, and we don't give you six months. 

Our depression and anger must seep into you, poison simmering like blood,
Multiplying sadness like bacteria, bursting into uncontrollable colonies!
We, your family, must infect you like viruses.
Drowning you in disease and despair.

Brother, Call the Doctors because

Mother must be Measles, for
She and her sadness is the most contagious.
She kills children early, swallowing them in like a terrible tsunami,
But when we were drowning, breathless,
I stopped swimming when I saw you, Brother, standing still.
The water bit into me like ice when I wondered why you hadn't jumped in.
But Big Brother, you're not a superhero, and you're certainly no knight,
So we can't have any damsels in distress, now can we?

But I digress.

Dad, oh Dad must be Dementia!
The memory loss, the lack of communication skills, it all makes sense!
Forgetting that, once upon a time, we loved each other. 
Forgetting that, once upon a time, we loved each other.
Forgetting that, once upon a time, we loved each other.
Hey Brother, do you remember?
How father used to tuck us in bed late, singing all about the "Starry, Starry Night."

But now it's pitch-black, and
We're not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel,
And you know how mother has always been afraid of the dark.
Brother, if we are cancer, you are the Black Hole,
And you engulf us in nightmare, in misery.
Brother, did you know? After all these years,
Mother still keeps a nightlight, and I wonder
If you think of her when your lighter sets aflame the night, cigarette smoke fogging
Your intoxicated mind, the flames reflecting off the shattered glass of your broken
bottles of Champion champagne.

But Brother, how is college? Is it fun? Is it fun? I hope you're liking your university, 
And that you're doing better than all the rest of us.

Brother, you know I really, really do hope
You're doing better than the rest of us—
 
Brother, I see the symptoms everyday,
Mother and Father, rotting to hell, shriveling in sorrow
Incinerated by their love for you,
All because loving you, All because of loving you.

And, oh, Brother, are you blind? And
Do their red eyes ever plague you?
Their creased, furrowed wrinkles on the forehead—
Like ugly carvings!
Like canyons,
Dug out of distress and despair!

Brother, Migraines comb back white hair, and I swear,
Their gaunt, hollow faces are bleached the same freakish white
As your powdered cocaine.
And now, their protruding cheekbones shed such thin skin,
Like some flimsy little wrapper of Halloween candy,
Meant to be torn and disposed of.

Brother, if we are Cancer,
Then you are the Leech!
And you drain our lifegivers, our parents, of their very souls!
Sucking in money like blood, you are the plump parasite
Knowing no bounds, You, the pathetic and pitiless!

Because, Brother, did you know? When leeches sink in
Their sorry fangs, anesthesia numbs the hosts.
But, Brother, you cut up your classes so painfully,
Just as nonchalantly, so habitually... It's
The same way you butcher Mom's heart.

And Brother, it's almost funny. It's almost laughable because
You have your glasses, but your vision is just as impaired!
Mesmerized with today's fun, you Brother and your near-sightedness.
Clinging to the now, the precious pleasure,
You, trampling on the blurred, distorted future and the far,
Your very own family--
As if you could somehow wipe us from your memory
Like you do a windshield,
Like you do with a ratty rag.
Like you do for vermin, for scum, for trash,
Yet you couldn't throw us away, Brother.
Because we are your precious family, 
Your precious ATM, but who knew that you'd be so willing to
Hack away at our hearts, as long as you could feast
On your lavish freedom.

But Ryan, my Brother, don't mistake us for a program or a code,
When we and our emotions cannot be defined, nor contained,
So simply by your 1's and 0's
Neither calculated by your coldness but instead
404 Error -- Love Not Found
Is truly like cancer because
You can throw as much money as you want,
And it will kill us no less!

So tell me, Ryan,
Was our terrible time together a vaccine?
For if distance was all it took for you to
Become immune to our pain,
Then how can we, your family, be anything like cancer?
But instead, it is you, and your Stone Wall,
And we as Humpty Dumpty, and
It is your unblinking gaze, uncaring and ensnaring
Because Brother, did you know?
You can only be hurt by what you care about,
And nobody could put Humpty Dumpty back together again!

Brother, I don't think I've ever any murder as crafty as this
Because you struck not only with surprise but also with silence.
Gouging out our eyes, now glazed and upturned
To gaze at the crying skies, Murder!
Without the lift of a single finger.

But Brother, if you ever cared for your family,
If there lies even an ounce of compassion left undestroyed,
Call the Doctors because
Brother, did you know?
Before when he was so terribly upset,
Father told me never to let you see his face at the funeral,
And I almost laughed, Brother. I almost laughed—
Because you never pick or picked up the phone!

Brother, call the doctors!
Call in the private detectives—
Call the mortician and the florist—
Because, Brother, Ryan,
My beloved Brother,
Your family may have been Death to you,

But now--
We will be Dead to you.

But Brother, if we are cancer,
Then I'm-- then we're glad--
You're a survivor. So
May family be forgotten
And hatred and hurt hide,
But Brother, Brother,
Never say you that our love ever died.