unsympathetic

without asking for sympathy
he still swings
those fists still ever-clenched
unyielding & enduring
jab after
jab
after
jab
bare-knuckled but far from
barnburning
his ferocity demonstrating that
going the distance is nothing short of an
unspoken certainty
speaking of the constant puking
when there is nothing in his
breadbasket
his shining bald head with but a few hairs here and there
burnt away in a chemo slash-and-burn
yet another
hook
another kidney-punch
a headbutt, a haymaker, a straight right---
as the cancer inside him
eats away at him
retaliating with all its might
he speaks of wanting to feel bad because that’s when he knows the poison is working
and how
he hasn’t kissed the canvas
he most certainly isn’t
down for the count---not even
½ the count
foaming at the mouth and ready to jump into the pit
with another
religious
idiot
trying to prove him wrong
pleading with him to accept their savior
before it is too late
praying for him while preying on him
telling him that god will forgive him
hitch still has em’ up against the ropes
stick and move
stick and move
a lifetime of visiting the scenes of the crimes
and telling us as it is
of never being afraid to take a stance that would not even
win him his own friends back
a
contrarian
to
the
fucking
core
an anti-theist
upgrading the Atheists
teaching us to come out of the closet
and learn to throw
fist
after
fist
like him
with him
our brethren
in this struggle where we owe him much
for his razor sharp wit
has cut
time and time again
the throats of the self-righteous
not pausing between sucker punches
and
sunday punches
to even bother with the water bottle
“you cannot bullshit the young”
is his advice
beautiful in the reality that comes with it
for we would rather not have anything
but what is found through the scientific method
through first person untainted reports
through letters from people who will not profit in their making
ah yes,
the smart one knows best to let us have it straight
hit us with a dead pan, because hopes and dreams are for the movies
but reality
lives and breathes in us
and we can change that
because it is tangible
and
rational
and he reminds us that
humor
is one of the most powerful weapons
when confronted with any kind of
strife;
“i’m a member of a cancer elite,” he quips
“i rather look down on people with lesser cancers.”

treading water in stage four
and reminding us that there is no
stage five
regardless of what you think of him
understand that having chemo on the brain
makes one foggy
and it can keep one from focusing to do things that require
much concentration
like writing
when hitchens found out that he had stage 4 he was petrified
because he wondered if he would stop writing
remarking
“because writing is who i am, not what i do”

let us who create
who use our own minds to communicate with each other
and rationally criticize this world in which we live
to remain
unsympathetic
regarding mr. hitchens
for he is much stronger than one who needs the pathetic pity
of people who pray/prey on all of us
these
spiritual ambulance chasers who will no doubt have some scumbag in the hospital
that day he is on his last leg
waiting for a
deathbed conversion

let us continue to fight the fight of which he himself has been fighting
for decades now
and to do him the respect of assuring him
that the towel of which we may wipe our sweat with during the struggle
will NEVER be thrown in.