Together they sit in reclining chairs

Thin tubes replacing sick blood with healthy

A middle-aged equine veterinarian

And a twenty-year older retired pediatrician

The first feeling low and tearful ‘till the later

Showed excitement that finally her count was high enough

She could begin the life saving chemo

The vet now not so low, felt cheered by this woman’s grit

Together they share some stories,

Of troubled horses and children, of ways to change the world

They then decide to work a crossword

The youngest’s eyes still dim from treatment the oldest agrees to read and write

So in the course of several hours,

The questions and answers are exchanged

And occasionally they nap-then waking ask, “Where am I?”

For they do not have diseases, they have lives!