Revisiting

Entering the room
The walls contract
Capturing me
Like a flower pressed
In pages.

Heart in throat
Trying to leap out
To touch the stories
Seated in the waiting room.

The buzz of voices
The silence of fear
Lips set in hard lines
Or forced smiles
Trying to be pleasant
And strong.

Two teams
The patients and the staff
The healthy and the injured
Red Rover Red Rover
Send the next one in.

There is a comfort in Deja Vu
I've been here before
I've walked these halls
I've sat in this little room
I survived it all.

The fear in the room is palpable
Like the charge before a storm
All cells alert
Listening for the rumble
Waiting for the crash
And the jump of alarm
Slowly calming as the nurse
Calls someone else's name.

They don't like to say you're cured
Until 5 years
Technically the term for this limbo
Is remission
But pressed on semantics
And based on all tests
The Doctor whispers
You're cancer free
Quietly, so as not to disturb
Any sleeping cells.