October is national breast cancer awareness month.(Brief Article)(Poem)

I'm Here Now

 
Metathraxate, Cyclophospamate, 
and the anti-emetic Ondansetron-- 
every first and second Thursday, 
they drip into my vein as I lie 
in a Barcalounger, feet up, 
reading New Yorker cartoons 
and Reader's Digest's Campus Comedy. 
I liked the Barcalounger so much 
I bought one. 
 
How are you feeling? Everybody asks, 
but they don't want to know. 
They want me to say I'm okay, 
but I don't, so they stop. 
 
The scalpel cutting into my breast 
sliced it like roast chicken, 
taking out the offending portion 
with a margin of error. 
 
When the nurses talked about it, 
they called it CA, like California. 
Never cancer. 
Did they do that for my sake 
or theirs? 
 
Seventy percent five-year survival rate 
means five years after the diagnosis, 
thirty percent are dead. 
Then I tell myself it doesn't matter 
for today. I could ...