What Can We Say Poem by Jim Yerman

What can we say to someone with cancer?
How can we brighten their day?
As they're beginning their frightening journey what in the world can we say?

They've been to the doctors.
They've read all the literature.
They know what their cancer could do.
Perhaps we can help them by telling them… all the things that cancer can't do….

We could tell them cancer cannot take away their memories.
With their sense of humor…cancer cannot elope.
It cannot poison our friendship…
or shatter our faith and our hope.

We could tell them cancer cannot blacken our souls.
How we won't let it darken our days.
How it cannot dampen our spirits
and how we'll be by there every step of the way.

And we can tell them cancer cannot diminish their courage…
because now they have something to prove…
that, perhaps, the reason the've been given this mountain…
is to show others how it can be moved.

Yes, when someone we love is battling cancer,
We do have a way to brighten their their day.
We share with them all the love in our heart…
And let our love find the right words to say.