A Gallent Fight Poem by Lynn W. Petty

I met her one day at the chemo lab.
She was having her one-hundredth treatment,
I was having my tenth. She said she played
Golf on her sixty-fifth birthday. She played
Sixty-five holes with her husband, to prove
She had the stamina to play, even with
Her illness. They had stayed at the golf club
For seven days and played each day, until
She had reached the sixty-fifth hole, in spite
Of her frailty of frame. She said she
Had won the battle of golf; that she stared
Cancer's malice directly in the face,
Despite the low whisperings in her ear
That her time was brief. The cancer had spread
Into her lungs. She fought on, with contempt,
Against the very meaning of cancer.
What a gallant fight. There was a somber
Feeling upon all our hearts when the news
Came that she had prevailed in her battle,
Yes, but, she had lost the war.