Radiation Reflection, Day 7

The world outside the cancer center
is as wild as blooming wisteria,
but it’s often not as pretty as spring flowers.
Protests take place this week, and every week
as wars upend strangers’ futures.

Here, inside the cancer center,
peace is winning this morning,
as a patient graduating from treatment
gifts charms of St. Agatha,
the patron saint of breast cancer,
to some of us remaining.

When the world is as small as this waiting room,
difficult things still happen,
but love is the wisteria
wanting to flower, grasp, grow, and seize.