Notes from the Fire Escape

Notes from the Fire Escape

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I Am Beating This. Also My Oncologist Can Piss Off.
How metabolic warfare, fasting, and cannabis became my strategy to outlive stage 4 cancer, and why the real enemy is the system.
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Duane Cummins
The Final Lines
Writers Who Didn’t Make It Out Alive.
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Duane Cummins
1
Every Angel I’ve Loved Was Bleeding. Kali in the Motel Room
A fever-dream encounter with a goddess who dismantles you to set you free.
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Duane Cummins
1
Cancer Isn’t Fair. Fight Dirty.
What I’ve learned about managing your own fight when the diagnosis says you won’t make it.
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Duane Cummins
2
Life Gave You Lemons? Make That Shit Lemonade!
How to take the worst life throws at you, grind it into pulp, and raise a glass like a champion.
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Duane Cummins
2
Reentry Wounds
A poem scraped from the edge. About falling, freedom, and the scars we wear like medals.
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Duane Cummins

July 2025

The Workers Are the Revolution That Will Never Come
Anarcho-syndicalism could’ve saved us. But we’re too selfish, too scared, and too far gone.
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Duane Cummins
7
The Second Ladybug
A poem for the messengers that crawl in when no one else can reach you.
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Duane Cummins
5
Chemo Day 5: How I Took Control of My Cancer Terrain and Came Back to Life
Ketosis, fasting, RSO, and the protocol that’s rebuilding me from the inside out.
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Duane Cummins
2
Have Passport, Can Travel. Also, Fuck This Place It Reeks of Pedophiles
After cancer, I’m not sticking around to save a country that doesn’t want saving. I’m chasing life, not permission.
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Duane Cummins
The Cancer, The Cure, and The Con
What Fighting for My Life Taught Me About the American Healthcare Racket
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Duane Cummins
13
Smoke, Honey, and the Goddess in the Café. The gods are still High.
Aphrodite’s anarchist sister, a joint, and the kind of love that leaves claw marks.
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Duane Cummins
1
© 2025 Duane Cummins
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