What she didn’t see coming

Sometimes, during dinner,

looking up from the tagine, she’d see

echoes from the pasts of her hosts.

At other times, the births

of children unconceived – tragedies

unfold in undeveloped lands,

long before the reports.

What she didn’t see coming was this:

the spread of cells to her stomach

and kidneys; serious

letters that spelled chemotherapy;

a future she couldn’t predict.