There are moments when I forget
about the lesions on my liver.

And then I notice a Mason jar
filled with polished black stones.

Or a telephone pole
peppered with nail heads

Or a field rife with Brown-eyed Susans.
Their centers cone-shaped.
Protruding.

Or your nostrils as you stand over me
reading treatment options aloud.

Though I only hear the pauses in between sentences.
Only see the periods scattered across the page.

# # #

Corey D. Cook’s poems have recently appeared in After the Pause, the Aurorean, Columbia College Literary Review, Dewpoint Literary Journal, East Coast Literary Review, Lummox and Red River Review. New work is forthcoming in Chiron Review, Muddy River Poetry Review and Yellow Chair Review. Corey’s latest chapbook, White Flag Raised, was released by Kattywompus Press in 2015 and is available for purchase online (http://kattywompuspress.com/). He edits Red Eft Review and lives in Vermont. Read more here: http://redeftreview.blogspot.com/

Photo credit: Larry Thacker http://www.larrydthacker.com