The Day After I Received a Good Report from My Doctor

    by Jan Duncan-O’Neal

I awaken without a knot in my stomach, slide

into fresh clothes, drink the best damn coffee I’ve ever made.

The traffic light at the end of my street

looks like a Christmas tree flashing a merry good morning.

Yell-ow RED green Yell-ow RED green Yell-ow RED green

at every intersection between here and where I need to go.

The woman in the car next to mine looks over at me,

opens her smile wider than her window, waves, and I wave back.

The hulking SUV behind me honks.  A reminder

I am breathing slowly, taking my time, to see things in a new light.

Bless the bulldozers, the dumpster, the men wearing hard hats,

clearing this forgotten site for new development.

Bless the boy riding his bicycle uphill, trying to stay close

to the curb, the girl jogging to music wailing from her earphones.

Bless this town even the barking dogs, stray cats,

and the people who do not yet know I am remarkably alive.

© 2012  Jan Duncan-O’Neal

Jan Duncan-O'Neal of Overland Park, Kansas has had her work published in numerous journals including Touch: The Journal of Healing and Kansas City Voices.  Her chapbook Voices: Lost and Found was published in 2011 by The Lives You Touch Publications.  Jan has also written a full-length collection of poetry recently.  She is an editor for I-70 Review, and active in poetry groups in the greater Kansas City area.  This past year Jan was a featured reader at The Writer’s Place in Kansas City and the monthly Johnson County Kansas Library Poetry Series.