POETRY: Twenty Seconds of Imagination

By ‘Aemot’

The results were back, there was no doubt
The doctor gave the answer.
My mouth was dry, my eyelids closed,
“You’ve developed prostate cancer.”

The words he spoke I’d heard before,
But now I was the one,
Those two dread words would threaten,
Life’s path I walked upon.

As I sat in that surgery,
Cold numbness took its toll.
Although I saw him talk to me,
Words made no sense at all.

I thought my world would fall apart,
Self-pity took its hold.
The darkness of the pit complete,
Which no hope could unfold.

Uncertainty of what to come,
Imagination racing,
Not knowing how to cope with that,
What future I was facing.

My thought then turned in seconds,
To those who I held dear.
What pain and heartache would they face?
That thought too much to bear.

The doctor called my name to me,
Repeated it once more –
My mind brought back to where I sat,
Away from that dark door.

He spoke in slow and measured terms,
His tone meant to assure.
“Although it is malignant,
These days there is a cure.”

Those words were as a lifeline thrown,
Hope dispelled devastation.
Those dreadful seconds brought about,
Through my own imagination.