doctor's office

they arrive
clutching folders
filled with many sheets of paper:
reports, test results,
prophesies of doom,
written in foreign languages;

they seem timid,
restless, even uneasy,
like uninvited dinner guests,
or the in-laws who always
stay too long;

they are here for some good news,
for a few milligrams of hope;
they pray that the end is not near,
even though sometimes at night,
they can feel His cold breath,
insistently
washing over their necks,
as they pour over their sheets of paper,
written in foreign languages,
looking for one familiar word:
hope.



March 11, 2009.

Copyright © 2009, Ricky A. Pursley. All rights reserved.