My Favorite Word

Sandwiched between the E and I

A secret letter beckons me

It joins with three to satisfy

A cherished word of my worthy

There is no day that I have fought

Without its guiding light and grace

From tasks mundane to lofty thoughts

Career, children, each had its place

Forty plus years of my true love

Now looming threat of worldly end

Gives summons to my homing doves

“God speed, come now, your power lend”

For HOPE is foremost on my slate

HOPE medicine creates a bridge

Join me, my heart, and wounded mate

As two outliers we may live

MY FAVORITE WORD - SYNOPSIS

This poem written at the end of my love’s chemo radiation and at the mercy of definitive surgical intervention, brings to mind my own life threatening diagnosis and 18 year survival beyond medicine’s expectations. I now lean on my favorite word and HOPE both of us end up being medicine’s outliers to be studied and talked about in the medical journals.