A Week Now Since His Quiet Laugh

A week now since his quiet laugh
Took serious my physic stuff
The jests and banter back and forth
Belied his depth of thought and worth.

He poked and asked and checked and thought
About my lungs, the life I’d walked,
“Not likely a metastacie
They’re mostly lower lobes, you see.

If these are cancer in the lung
They likely from new source have sprung
But mostly this size are benign
Just wait and see next CT time.

“You see”, he said, “the ‘bad guys’ are
By this  time spread in body far’
So when they’re seen, damage is done
And you’d be toast, by now, my son.”

An ‘upside T-R’, I would guess
Just like my dad – indeed we’re blessed
By doc’s like him, whose work is sound
He listens close then states his ground.

He checked contingent options out
Though doubted TB was the route
These ‘thingies’ in my lungs appeared
“When it’s TB, it looks more weird”.

The test the doctor’s doubt confirmed,
No TB there, health was affirmed.
So now we wait and check again
As good it gets – calm I remain.

I got a call ’bout UCC
“Should I partake in ‘M&P’?”
(The group that oversees the staff
In church he goes to, where he laughs).

I said, “Ground Zero – that’s the place
Where upper church, to its disgrace
Attempts to force conformance to
Bizarre and twisted thought from you.

“It’s like this cancer we’ve both had
Malignant cells, aggressive, bad
Take hold, like metastatic cells
And spread like doctor’s ‘bad boys’ hell.

Before it shows its ugly face
It’s spread its presence through your place
You’ve got a family to raise up
Perhaps think twice before this cup.

It’s not your fight, support as friend
The church is sick, no health intends
In sand their head’s stuck firmly in
Conducting and condoning sin.

Until they’re ready to repent
Perhaps your time is better spent
With kids and wife and lake and job
Don’t let their sickness your life rob.

Like me, sit back, get on with life
Don’t buy into this fruitless strife
Like ‘Uncle Remus’ stories are
That baby sticks to one like tar.

Our bodies throw off from inside
New cancer cells where e’re they hide
That is, if healthy we remain
In church and job it is the same.

Stay healthy, that’s the best defence
It drives malignant cells out – hence
Our body-life remains quite good
This from our lives we’ve understood.

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