Tammy Daniel

Tipton Poetry Journal – Fall 2021

First Treatment

Tammy Daniel

The cancer concierge calls my name, escorts me to the first of four treatment rooms she quaintly refers to as a cubby.

I crawl into that word cubby envisioning a board of mind-control educators convinced its usage would provide patients with a sense of comfort, cuddly as naptime on the first day of kindergarten.

Then, as if I were a child toting a small stack of coloring books, I’m told to select a seat. In an act of defiance, I forego the offer of a snack or warm blanket.

Instead, I deposit myself on the sandy beach of a vinyl recliner basking under the warm rays of a sun-soaked window

where I’ll work on my tan until the afternoon bell rings.

Tammy Daniel was selected as one of New Voices of 2015 by The Writers Place in Kansas City, Missouri. She was a finalist in the Davis Grove Haiku and Nature Poetry Contest, and her work has appeared in I-70 Review, Touch: The Journal of Healing, The Ekphrastic Review, Anthology on Aging: The Shining Years, Dying Dahlia Review, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Red River Review, Rusty Truck, Ink Sweat and Tears, and the Johnson County Library.