Lost In The Crowd | Cancer Poem
I wrote this poem 155 days after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
During treatment, most people in my life didn't let me get away with saying "I'm fine." They cared and wanted to know more details, yet I so longed to be able to return to the days when "I'm fine" was taken as the truth. I hope I now have compassion for others who are not "fine", yet will have wisdom to know when to press for details, and when to let them be invisible.
when I am invisible again?
When people will ask, "How are you?"
and I will say
"Fine"
and it will be taken
at face value
and conversation will continue
like everything is normal,
because it is?
Will I like being invisible again?
Lynne Hartke writes stories of courage, beauty, and belonging—belonging to family, community and to a loving God at www.lynnehartke.com. Her cancer story, Under a Desert Sky, was published in 2017. Her biggest take-away from having cancer: Quit waiting for someday.