An utterance fell upon her young mind

Was well beyond her sagacity to foresee

She was born with the cancer gene – was

never told to her adoptive parents.

This prediction or unpure conjecture ran

like a darkened thread through her

thoughts – plagued my lifelong friend

the same way her ‘father’ beat her.

She tried so hard to perpetuate faith

but gave up a long time ago when

so many so called friends turned their

backs on her – I never did.

The prophecy began to hammer her

harder and harder as she matured – the

chain of events in her life unraveled so

quickly she could never catch her breath.

The words told to her blanketed her innocence

and illustrated her life completely, well beyond

her teen years – she only had two colors to choose

from, one was black, the other gray.

Then, in her thirties, she developed breast cancer

Went into remission and then a short time ago

it once again reappeared and began to spread

Now she lies with life bleeding in her hands.

Ó 2009 R. Lance Sheridan