Circling by Barbara Lydecker Crane

Circling

My mind circles and dives as I await the test.
Tomorrow looms, the date of the test.

I’ve cleaned my nest, done mindless chores,
trying not to concentrate on the test.

I knit and mend, as if my hands could forfend
a need to operate post-test.

But thoughts pierce the sultry, summer sky
to illuminate and equate the test

with dire news. I wish that I could wing it.
I wish I didn’t have to cultivate another test:

will I do my best to deal with fate?
With flying colors, Crane, you state that test.

by Barbara Lydecker Crane

Editor’s Note: This ghazal uses the repetitive form to highlight the obsessive worry we all feel when awaiting news of medical testing and possible illness. The emotional stress is haunting.

Announcement:  CLOSED to submissions until August 20, 2015. I will resume reading on August 20, 2015. Daily poems will resume on August 24. Thank you!