Doctor’s Words

Future paths open with doctors’ words

Confident or hedging

Direct or veiled,

Lives are changed with the words they choose.

“I don’t make predictions,” a doctor once said, and

Not knowing is OK if that’s the best one can do.

But an educated guess is not a prediction,

Nor is offering reasons for hope undue.

A best-guess shared with an encouraging tone

May calm a mind untethered, adrift,

Awash in uncertainty about a life with illness,

Feeling afraid and worried — all alone.

A doctor’s words may build or destroy,

Predicting how one goes forth

Into one’s only life.

Until no path opens.