No matter what I post, I always make a point of mentioning my poetic hearth, or home, or launching pad, or cafe… I am proud to be a member of Poets United, and all my poems are backtracked there to a constantly updating feed. Today, they had a specific prompt, and so I was thrilled to write something just for them.
HeLa
Blacks abused, a story
that seems to have no end.
Obscure beginning for HeLa.
One woman’s cancer cells were
scraped away as she lay dying, more
from the treatment than the cancer itself.
Johns Hopkins implanted radioactive rods in
her womb until all inside her turned bomb-black.
The cells taken from her uterus, much like a skin shed
in death, were put on the market and migrated from lab
to lab until they were all over the world. But no one told
her family, nor did they give them any of the money… quite
a considerable amount, not to mention the intellectual property.
Henrietta Laks was used, over and over, by whites, for profit.
First, in life, by cruel poverty, segregation, inability to
care for her own, to see to her kids’ well-being, to their
education; one daughter was institutionalized, as she had
married her first cousin, like folks did back in those
days. Her cervical cancer was detected far too late;
she died so young. Then, after her death, her
“immortal cells,” truly a medical miracle,
proliferated without anyone’s say-so,
and only by chance did her daughter
find out Mom had been to outer
space, survived bomb blasts,
outlasted most of her kin,
but only bits of Mom.
Black folks always
feared Johns
Hopkins.
Now
they
know
why.
© 2012 Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil
Poets United’s Think Tank Thursday asked us to write a poem based on a book. Henrietta Lacks is the subject of a book I recently read, called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. On the cover is a picture of a vibrant, fun-loving girl, dressed up to go out on the town. A few short years later, she was dead of cervical cancer… but scientists “harvested” her cells, which seemed to have immortality; whatever they did to them, “HeLa cells” (they used the first two letters of first and last names of all patients from whom they harvested cells, and all without family permission or compensation) survived and proved to be hearty. Of course, members of the scientific “brain trust” also perpetrated other atrocities on Black Americans, including the infamous Tuskeegee sterilization of thousands of fertile men and women, in hopes of narrowing the race to “controllable” numbers.
Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah, eventually teamed with the book’s author, Rebecca Skloot, a white writer who gained Deborah’s trust. Together they embarked on a journey back in time, tracing the history of both the woman Henrietta and the HeLa strain of cervical cells. Read it – horrifying and fascinating history. For more on Henrietta, and to view the picture mentioned in the poem, click HERE. Peace, Amy
Aug 10, 2012 @ 01:35:57
Thank you , Amy, for using your poetry to inform and teach! God bless you . . .well done!
Aug 12, 2012 @ 13:13:05
Thank you, Deb, and blessings to you and yours. Amy
Aug 10, 2012 @ 06:23:59
thanks for this post and the information.
Aug 10, 2012 @ 11:46:14
Wow, Amy, you always manage to blow what little mind I have left. This is a whole other topic of outrage I hadnt heard about. No end to it. Thanks for shedding light on the topic.
Aug 10, 2012 @ 13:42:28
I liked your poetry form; quite interesting. I’m yet to write in this form. The story you shared was not known to me. I liked it more as a poetry lol You wrote it that well.
Aug 12, 2012 @ 13:14:12
I didn’t even plan on writing the form; it just sort of grew that way! Thanks, and see you at your blog! Amy
Aug 10, 2012 @ 16:00:08
I’m with Debbie. I admire you for exposing this in a poem. Great work! I’ll have to look this book up and read it.
Aug 11, 2012 @ 09:20:46
I read an interview of this author and the daughter. Indescribably painful and unconscionable. I always hope for better, sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. You did an excellent job of poetically tallying all the injustice.
Aug 11, 2012 @ 12:16:16
Can’t say I was familiar with this but it doesn’t really surprise me, if we REALLY knew what they do we’d probably lose our minds – powerful stuff!
Aug 11, 2012 @ 13:13:58
60 years of advances certainly has changed the way things are done. While I have not read the book, I had heard about HeLa cells and had understood John Hopkins had not patented them nor sold them commercially….the controversy continues♫
Aug 12, 2012 @ 16:14:12
Wow, Amy, this story blows my mind. What an awful thing to have been done to this woman . I have not heard of HeLa cells, but I definitely feel for this woman and her family who learned all this later on somehow. I am sure the book would be interesting, but I doubt I would have the heart to read it. Too sad. I like the poetry form you used to write; and you told just enough to capture our interest and make us curious.
Aug 12, 2012 @ 19:02:48
the atrocities committed by ignorant malicious men…well told Amy
Aug 12, 2012 @ 19:18:03
I have heard about her but thanks for sharing more info ~ I like the format of the words too ~
Aug 12, 2012 @ 22:28:21
Hi there! Please check out my new poetry blogzine and submit your best work: brevitypoetryreview.blogspot.com/
Aug 13, 2012 @ 02:18:41
Beatiful way to convey such a relevant informantion.
u
Aug 13, 2012 @ 11:24:35
WOW. That must have been an awful life. I’m thankful you wrote it in poetry form!
Aug 14, 2012 @ 00:51:09
yet another travesty forgotten by those who perpetrated it. thank you for bringing it to my attention, Amy.
♥
Aug 14, 2012 @ 02:05:01
Sah. Kinana, and Dani, I’ve gone to your sites and commented as well. Thanks for your support as I continue to speak out about this very tricky subject of incest… Peace, Amy
Aug 14, 2012 @ 02:06:40
Sorry, was commenting on wrong poem. But just as well, as racism and social justice also take up many posts on my blog. I cannot imagine what her family has been through, continues to go through… greed knows no master. A
Aug 14, 2012 @ 14:13:18
Your poem is both enlightening and so touchingly painful to read (as is the back story). Thank you for sharing this with us.
These words will stay with me for a long time:
Johns Hopkins implanted radioactive rods in
her womb until all inside her turned bomb-black….