Write something about sitting 
in a doctor’s waiting room. 
Get more specific. Write something 
about sitting in a doctor’s waiting room 
as everyone else is escorted down 
the mouth of the sterile hallway by nurses 
in purple scrubs. Describe the smell of antiseptic. 
Write about remaining in the plastic chair long after 
the lights go out and the doctors go home. 
Write about coughing up your lungs onto the linoleum, 
about the sound of the splatter. Write about remembering 
the lasagna your mother used to make on Sundays 
in the last half second before you collapse in front 
of the admissions desk, stuffing your lungs back 
into their cavity with your unwashed, shaking hands. 
It’s a metaphor. Now you have a poem.

E.C. Gannon’s work has appeared in Peatsmoke Journal, Assignment Magazine, SoFloPoJo, Olit, and elsewhere. A New England native, she holds a degree in creative writing and political science from Florida State University. She is @ec_gannon on all platforms.