SIT AND WAIT.

A WOMAN WAITS IN A WITIMG ROOM ABOUT HER CANCER

Just sit there and wait,
the nurse said, Jinjang

sat and waited. The room
smelt of cheap disinfect

and sick body’s odour.
She looked around;

took in the yellow curtains,
light blue walls, plain carpet.

The doctor’s name was
unfamiliar and the  plump

young receptionist had
been rude and gruff.

The pain in the breast
was still there as she sat

silent on the wooden chair.
Her fingers had found a lump

while she showered. Her sick
mother had died of cancer,

the woman her childhood self
had loved wasted away like an

unwatered plant in a dry pot 
one hot summer’s day.

Author's Note

ART BY BILL IVES