One Little Word

June…Graduation came going to get my PHD with a studio apartment and a canvas full of ambition.

July…A small little surgery leads to an answer, I'm told we need to get the Cancer before it spreads.

August…One little word, two small tears, a few questions, and a vain prayer to just let me die at seventeen.

Three Questionable Hours…Asleep under Mr. PHD he cuts me and brakes me as he talks about his great golf game.
September…One deep scare, five stages of emotions, ten staples and seven-teen stitches to hold my life together.

September still…College, God, and friends all under question. One little word; a whole new perspective.

October…Three more surgeries, Twenty-two more scares, Mr. PHD got a new car.

November…just a small check-up, I was told I was so brave. I want to stick this IV in his arm just to make it go away.
March…Take pictures of me bare, my lungs, my skin, my life. There it is again the same answer in a different dwelling, that One Little Word.