You step out of the Benz, grab your carry-on, about to be swallowed by the throng pouring into Terminal 1. Your white-fringed head sports new growth after the latest round of radiation. You look like the Buddhist nun you’ve always carried inside of you. I hug you goodbye for the fifth time. You pull back and your eyes pin mine, bore into me like panic, like love. I read your thoughts. You memorize my face. I hold your gaze in my throat.

Amazon strong, one
breast gone, one foot in the grave,
her desperate smile.

[Photograph of Kate O’Donnell is copyrighted by Alexis Rhone Fancher.]

Bio: Alexis Rhone Fancher