Editor’s Choice

The Cancer Diagnosis

    by Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas

We linger in the waiting room before

results are in, and there I take your hand

in mine unsure of fate or what’s in store;

the two of us with braided arms that land

as one upon my lap. You turn the ring

around my finger as it spins soft glints

of gold reflecting back and forth; a ping

returning light from yours to mine in stints

of milliseconds, yet there's no reply

as you and I communicate without

the need for words. With just a sigh

I feel a weighty breath of doubt;

uneasiness beyond each pending test

when nothing said conveys all fears suppressed.

© 2012  Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas

Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is a six-time Pushcart nominee and Best of the Net nominee.  She has authored eight chapbooks along with her latest full-length collection of poems: Epistemology of an Odd Girl, newly released from March Street Press.  She is a recent winner of the Red Ochre Press Chapbook competition for her manuscript “Before I Go to Sleep.”  According to family lore, she is a direct descendent of Robert Louis Stevenson.