Life stopped        spring was spent  
isolated in the hospital      and then     nine more
    
months of chemo      her daily ritual      confined
for hours         the life-saving poison pumping  

through    her veins     by way of her chest port
once she said     they cut down on the arsenic  
 
as it was causing my heart to race       by now
her hair has thinned      hands tremble  

It is her life.     She works her garden, tending
vegetables to share on days she cannot eat  

Told by the experts she has the “best kind”
of leukemia, she vows to keep herself going