Questions on the back of a yellowed
envelope are twenty years old now.
The Academy of American Poets,
is the return address. My script is staccato,
the ink royal blue, likely written
in my car in the clinic lot.
Each line races off in dashes,
two question marks signal the end:

1.       okay to get flu shot —

2.       still need mammograms —

3.       sinus headache —

4.       joint pain —

5.       tumor marker test results —??

The answers in hindsight are clear
from the distance of years:

1.       It is always okay to get a flu shot. You do not want the flu and cancer.

2.       No need for a mammogram if you don’t have breasts. One of the few perks of not having breasts.

3.       For the rest of your life, every headache will signal cancer to you, but it will never be that obvious.

4.       See answer 3.

5a.       The tumor marker test is as likely to result in false positive as false negative so why do the test? It is either an excuse to bill more diagnostic tests (false positive) or offer deceptive comfort (false negative). Perhaps both.

5b.       It is worse to be told you are safe when you are not.