Abstract
What was she to do,
this woman
so young who
suddenly became
so sick and got
so tired of taking
so many pills each day?
She could, I imagine, angrily
throw the medication cups
across the room, sending
pills clattering off walls and
over the floor like a shower of
hailstones. Or she could defiantly
crush the pill cups and
slam-dunk the wad of them in
the garbage can next to
her hospital bed shouting,
“Enough!” No one would
blame her if she did,
it all being
so unfair.
But instead, after obediently
swallowing the medications she was
tired of needing, she
carefully unfolded
each white paper pill cup,
flattened them into circles and, with
colored pens and glitter, turned them
into flowers, transforming
the pale medicine cups
she dreaded seeing
so many times each day
into brilliant blossoms she
gave to her caregivers.
A few of her bright flowers bloomed
on bulletin boards in our office
as we read her obituary
in grief-stunned silence.
—in memory of Haley