The Last Treatment

Today
I walked into radiation
for the last time.

Same room.
Same machine.
Same strange blue light
humming above me.

But something was different.

I knew
I was leaving.

For months
I lay beneath that machine
and tried not to think
about what it was doing
to the thing inside me.

Today
I thought about tomorrow.

No appointment.
No waiting room.
No gown.
No countdown.

Just the door
opening,

and me
walking through it.

I don't know
what comes next.

But for the first time
in a long time,

next
sounds pretty good.