ONCOLOGY FISH | Laura Carmen Arena

flim flam

swims in the pale coral

gentle fin sways

in the current we don’t see

my mother is not a swimmer

and yet the current

drips into her veins to stop the growth

the fishes swim in every season

emptied lobby

everyone has nearly gone

nose touching the water’s edge

fantails floating in quiet expectation

“In 2022, my mother was unexpectedly diagnosed with an advanced and aggressive cancer.
For many months, I went with her to a hospital in Boston for bimonthly infusions. While she was
undergoing treatment, I would sit by a large fish tank in the waiting area, often only with my
thoughts and the fish. The two fish were a kind of welcoming committee, and companions in the
endurance sport we were undertaking. At every visit, I would look for them, and when one of the
pair was not visible–perhaps sleeping under the coral and hidden–I would feel a kind of panic. I
photographed the fish with every visit, until the visits stopped. This triptych is part of a larger work in progress.”
© Oncology Fish 1 to 3. Laura Arena Fall 2023 Intima

Laura Carmen Arena is an Argentinian-American writer and visual artist and an experienced yoga and meditation teacher based in Cambridge. She has led workshops on meditation and yoga at universities and other professional settings and her photography has appeared in local and international outlets. She studied literature at New York University, and contemplative traditions, education and creative writing at Harvard University, where she also served as a teaching fellow, photographer, web master and assistant director of multicultural affairs.

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