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Missed kiss

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2026

Grace Kao Open the ORCID record for Grace Kao [Opens in a new window]
Grace Kao*
Affiliation:
Pain Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
*
Email: gkao@mdanderson.org
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Information

Type
Poetry
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 24 , 2026 , e245
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Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that no alterations are made and the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press or the rights holder(s) must be obtained prior to any commercial use and/or adaptation of the article.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press.
Tucked between lost socks
And a skipped breakfast
Is a kiss I missed.
This morning she cried
As I left before sunlight
Don’t go, Mommy!
For once, my patient is early
She grips a Kleenex
Fiddles with a purse pin
A smiley-faced daisy:
“Every day is a new mercy.”
She speaks before I can
The Cancer came back.
I thought I had more time, she says
And I don’t know how to disagree
You try not to let it catch you, she says
Her hand slips from the pin.
And when it does, you don’t even know it.
But maybe I didn’t want to.
Time crashes past, unseeing
I watch it seep between us
For a moment, it stills
Pools at our feet
We sit in its wake
I hold her hand.