Pushcart Nomination 2021

We have held ourselves together by threads / made more of magic than science.

~Larina Warnock

I am honored that my poem “Love Under Threat of Cancer” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Autumn Sky Poetry Daily.

Mark and I have been married nearly 25 years. There’s a history of breast cancer in the family, and I have an autoimmune disease which increases my risk. Three times, I’ve been called back after my annual mammogram after abnormal findings. The last time was abnormal enough they now have me having an MRI halfway through the year and a mammogram at the end of the year, just to be sure. Sometimes the rational self isn’t quite aligned with the emotional self. Even knowing that breast cancer is among the most survivable, each time I’m called back, we hold our breath until all the tests are done. This poem is personal and true and I am so glad it spoke to others as well.