I woke with Throat cancer. I’m positive that’s what it is.
Yesterday my sinuses were hurting me and now I have a lump on my neck. It’s the
size of a quarter, or maybe a Kennedy half dollar. I’m sure it’s growing. I
wonder how long I have to live? A week maybe.
JoAnn says it’s nothing. JoAnn says I should have health
insurance so I could go see a doctor so she could tell me it’s nothing. JoAnn
assumes all doctors are women unless proven otherwise, just like God, she says.
She lives in the apartment above mine and the only reason she had a say in the
matter is that she was walking out as I was walking in and saw me.
-Ack. What’s wrong with your neck?
-I have throat cancer.
-No.
Sometimes she just tells me No. I never know what to say to
that, so I don’t say anything. But If it’s nothing why did she say Ack?
The bug-eye barista looks me right in the neck as he gets my
coffee order. I pay my $27.50 for a small drip coffee and day old pastry and
take my usual seat at the counter facing the window and watch all the people
going about their business of living longer than a week.
