Defiant Joy

Feb 03, 2026

Deflating sharp pain of grief my new companion

since the death of my joyous friend

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Laughter and giggles comfort me thinking of her bald head

tattooed with glittered purple and pink balloons

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I get it now. Her life was like helium to everyone

keeping us all afloat through the tough times

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Her spirit soaring free surely can see

my newly diagnosed cancer cells

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She showed me the irony that

life is death and death is life

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I feel her in a thought

Defiant joy, my helium.

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Anya Sophia Mann, October 2018. First published November 4 2021.

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