Waiting Room
By Jan Ball
In the waiting room
a girl cradles a bouquet
of yellow roses in her arms
before her first chemo
treatment.Two slightly older patients,
who have buds in their ears
and knit caps on their heads,
rock back and forth and tap
their toes in Nikes
while they wait.
a girl cradles a bouquet
of yellow roses in her arms
before her first chemo
treatment.Two slightly older patients,
who have buds in their ears
and knit caps on their heads,
rock back and forth and tap
their toes in Nikes
while they wait.
I am here to find out where
I come for my first radiation
treatment next week.
This windowless basement
location is the grayest space
I’ve been in at the hospital:
chairs in parallel rows
like a classroom, no
colorful Klee or Chagall
reproductions on the walls,
no Debussy or Ravel
music playing, just a TV
blaring reruns
of Days of Our Lives
while we wait.
Numerous poems by Jan Ball (266 to be precise) have been published in journals including: ABZ, Atlanta
Review, Calyx, Connecticut Review, Main Street Rag, Nimrod, and Verse Wisconsin. In addition to the
U.S., her work has been published in Great Britain, Canada, India, and Ireland. Jan’s two chapbooks:
Accompanying Spouse (2011) and Chapter of Faults (2014) were published with Finishing Line Press.
Jan’s first full-length poetry book I Wanted to Dance with My Father was published by Finishing Line
Press in September 2017. When not working out, gardening at their farm or traveling, Jan and her
husband like to cook for friends.