"One, Three, Two"

Back on January 28th of this year while I was still recovering from colon cancer surgery, my son Clayton thoughtfully wrote a poem that combined a story about his daughter learning to count and his feelings when he learned that my November colonoscopy had found colon cancer, which was originally diagnosed at stage 3, then reduced to stage 2 following successful surgery. Clayton called me today to share that he submitted the poem to his Humanities class and it won 1st prize and is being published in the annual issue of the Penn State Medical School magazine.

"One, Three, Two"

"Not polyps," son, "Stage one, at least."
Dad's telephone-voice silenced our feast,
Haunting what-if's tormented me.
And next I heard, "one" became "three."

My daughter, learning to count to five,
Will she know "Gampah," will he survive?
"One…" Yes, child, what's next? She says, "Thwee"
No, darling, what lies in between?

Mom's elated call interrupts us:
News? What corrected diagnosis?

"Of course I know, Grandpa I do,
What comes next?"

Her answer back: "two."

-Clayton Hess