WHAT ADULTS SAY OR DO WHEN YOUR 12-YEAR-OLD HAS CANCER | Claire Weiner

 

From spring into summer into fall, all you can do 
is walk in a straight line. Your secretary gets teary, 
gives you a limp hug.  The scout leader sends 

you a sad-eyed emoji. The well-intended, 
God-blessing neighbors bring you flowers 
and cheesy casseroles, with sweet notes

reminding you to please return 
their Williams Sonoma dish. Never do you 
eat their food. Never do they think 

their flowers need to be watered, as you watch 
carnations and daisies droop and scatter onto 
the dining room table, where no one has eaten for months. 

The nurses will call you “Mom.”

You will protect this child
who you birthed, whose head is now
shiny as sea glass. You will remember

that the two of you played beauty shop
and braided her honey-colored hair. You tied
braids with big bows & small. You painted 

her fingers & toes. And she painted yours 
in the most shocking of pinks. And you will look up 
and remember, she is not your only child. 

Your firstborn is waiting patiently. And not only 
waiting. He is also watching. Watching to see 
what you’re really made of. 

Because he too, is trying to find out what he’s 
really made of when his baby sister, who he 
hates, but also loves, is so sick he has to carry her down the stairs. 


Claire Weiner was born in Chicago and raised in the Chicago suburbs. Except for a decade in Los Angeles, she has spent most of her adult life in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She spent her decades-long, non-writing career working as a psychotherapist, helping people make more sense of their life stories. She began writing in earnest when her children were grown. Her work has been published in After Hours Press, Burningwood Literary Review, Uppagus, Muddy River Poetry Review, Peninsula Poets, and others. Her chapbook, For a Chance to Walk on Streets of Gold, was published by Finishing Line Press in Spring 2024. She and her husband now split their time between Michigan and Arizona, grateful to be surrounded by natural beauty in both places.

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