I want to talk about cancer
how more than 1,500 people will be taken because of it each day.
I want to talk about lumps that go undetected
for years everything would be okay
until it's not anymore.

I want to talk about treatment
how chemo and radiation take your strength
and along with it, your spunk.
I want to talk about how cancer can
take and take until there is nothing left.

I want to talk about what cancer has done to me.
How my friends and family have battled.
I want to talk about my odds.
How glim my future is because of it.

I want to talk about my grandfather.
From skin cancer to leukemia,
he has battled it all.
I want to talk about how cancer took the fire out of him.
How the treatments sucked out his light.

I want to talk about my parents.
My father's skin cancer
and my mother's colon and breast cancer scares. 
I want to talk about it because cancer was my roommate.

I want to talk about my friend.
How I watched her lose her hair and appetite.
I want to talk about her because she was happy
despite it. 

I want to talk about cancer
because it took her life too soon.
Because cancer is a demon that no one can destroy.
I want to talk about cancer because I hate it.

I want to talk about funerals.
How this is a funeral I shouldn’t have had to attend.
I want to talk about the friends, family, and teachers
that were left behind
as cancer raises its fist in victory.

I want to talk about life after cancer
because life goes on.
I want to talk about cancer
so that maybe,
one day,
we can stop it.