The Background …

(A leukemia diagnosis the summer before Kimberly’s sophomore year in high school led to a series of aggressive medical treatments. She participated in an experimental CAR T-cell trial at Stanford University in California that achieved partial success. Eventually she received a bone marrow transplant in Denver in 2018. She spent 70 consecutive days in the hospital to recover. Subsequent tests showed no evidence of cancer cells. Kimberly graduated from her Montana high school in early June. She now studies at the university toward her goal of becoming a nurse. She wrote the following poem for her high school English class. Kimberly is our granddaughter, our oldest daughter’s daughter, the third oldest of seven grandkids.— Kevin S. Giles)

From Kimberly: “These beads, called ‘Beads of Courage,’ are a physical representation of my journey as a cancer patient and a bone marrow transplant recipient. Each bead stands for a different procedure, occurrence, or action while I went through treatment and recovery. For example, black beads represent needle pokes, red beads represent blood transfusions, and yellow beads represent overnight hospital stays. There are hundreds of beads on this string. It stretches over 20 feet long.”

By Kimberly Peacock

1.
time holds no significance
surrounded by people
you are dying
falling
flying through clouds of
oblivion
seeing is believing (1)
isn’t it?

2.
watch your life climb and fall
anxiously fragile
jolting awake at every bump (2)
there’s a snake on your arm (3)
squeezing
resting
you are too warm
too cold
too late.

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