Summary

In the first line, the speaker reveals that she may have cancer. This leads her to decide to plant 15 white lilies in her garden. Easter has already passed, so the flowers she buys are wilted and the roots are overgrown and bound inside the pots. She digs them into her garden and is aware of the fact that it will take a year for them to bloom again.

The seasons pass and the speaker describes the changes in her garden and in her body as a result of the cancer. During the summer, she compares the lily stalks to “ramshackle posts” as she waits for test results to confirm whether or not she has cancer (6). The lily stalks fall with the arrival of autumn. Doctors sample the cells and make laser incisions on her tongue, where the cancer is described as a “sprawling mass...