This is especially for everyone grappling with a new medical diagnosis, and for all who love and care for them.

Medical Diagnosis




it's a new language
I'm learning to speak
these medical words
in this medical world
with these medical people

they stick in my throat
these unfamiliar terms
these foreign ideas
that I don't want to speak

these words should remain
locked in closets or shoved
deep under the bed
these awful words I dread

but speak them I must
and face them head on
there's no cure in hiding
wishing they were gone

no, I'm not fluent
in this new language
I retain only
what I need to know
and the words still stick

in my throat