Benign, and Other Words for This Kind of Reprieve, by Carolee Bennett

Carolee Bennett is an artist and poet living in Upstate New York, where she
has fun saying she has been the “almost” poet laureate of Smitty’s Tavern.
She has an MFA in creative writing (poetry) from Ashland University in
Ohio and works full-time as a writer in social media marketing.

About the poem:
My mom died of colon cancer when she was 56. Often, I’m convinced I have the
disease, too. Although screening procedures are intended to alleviate fear, they’re
burdened by the unavoidable fretting and so many odd humiliations. Expecting bad
news after my first screening, it was somehow more surreal to learn that I was
perfectly healthy.