Today I met a man who thought that he was truly dying <br />This brush with his mortality had left him lost and crying <br />He never really understood how fragile life can be <br />And now his hopes and desperation focused square on me <br /> <br />I had a kindly conversation with him and his wife <br />I guaranteed that I would do my best to save his life <br />I reassured him that this tumor might still be benign <br />If not we hoped that we had caught it in the nick of time <br /> <br />Next day I gave him his good news that it was nothing bad <br />He and his wife were quite relieved and yet they both seemed sad <br />They looked back at their lives and saw so many wasted years <br />They smoked too much and drank too much and cried too many tears <br /> <br />That day that he thought he was gone was really quite a gift <br />It made him see that up ‘til then his life was just adrift <br />Although I never had to work a wonder with a knife <br />That day was not forgotten and in fact it saved his life.<br /><br />Richard Lackman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/almost-cancer/
