After the Diagnosis

I stopped planting annuals—no more petunias

or geraniums or zinnias I longed to have come back

without my bidding. I planted Lenten roses, daffodils,

daylilies whose color I forgot so they would surprise me in summer:

orange persimmon, showlight, mystic amulet, wispy morn.

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Shuly Xóchitl Cawood

Shuly Xóchitl Cawood is the author of The Going and Goodbye: a memoir and 52 Things I Wish I Could Have Told Myself When I Was 17. Her writing has been published in Brevity, The Rumpus, Zone 3, Santa Clara Review, New Madrid Journal, and Cider Press Review, among others. Her website is shulycawood.com.

Contributions by Shuly Xóchitl Cawood