Slavena Salve Nissan ~

if you happened to pass by room 2
in a medical practice somewhere uptown
some time in the spring
you would’ve heard
laughter
a medical student and her patient
giggling like toddlers
right in the middle of the cranial nerve exam
what a thing to hear

if only i could write that prescription
laughter po prn
no copay required

Peggy Murphy ~

I need to see Justin before my workday commences. I'm a social worker at the outpatient cancer center where Justin has been treated for an aggressive colon cancer.

Seeing him today means visiting him in the hospital, up the road from the center.

It's almost surreal.

When I first met Justin, nearly two years ago, he looked every bit the linebacker--well over six feet tall, with a girth to match. A man in his late fifties, he had a booming voice and an engaging personality. He was married, a successful wining-and-dining stockbroker, active in his town and in the local Italian American Society.

Scott Janssen ~

"You ever work with vets?" asks the young man sitting across from me in the hospital waiting room.

He's been sitting there all morning. So have I. Since 5:30 am, my father-in-law, age eighty-eight, has been undergoing surgery to remove a tumor in his lung. The surgeons just sent word that they've finished, and my wife and her mother have gone to the post-op room to see him.

Waiting for them to return, my wife's sister and I have been talking about her son, who's thinking of joining the Air Force.

"Warn him about the recruiters and their shiny promises," I say. "Tell him they're all a bunch of liars."

"That's for damn sure," the man says.

We smile at each other and chat for a bit, then my sister-in-law starts messing with her cellphone, opting out of the conversation.

The man tells me that he was in the Army for twenty years, including combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.