A visit to the Dutchess Radiology Clinic
is not, QED, deaths first quiet tap on the door.
Some brain tumors are benign and extractable.
Not all coughs are caused by cancer.
But, always, the possibility…
Sitting in the waiting room while Nancy has her
Second-year-since-operation-check-up MRI.
I glance, quickly, into the eyes of another
gray haired guy, sitting, worried.
His wife’s in there too.
We nod, acknowledgment.
We know the what ifs.
The light dims in the window.
Clouds or harpy on the roof?
The waiting room morphs to parlor.
Our faces pale.
No one voices the dread.
We wait.