The Contenders

I’m just a Stage IIIc slacker living in the Great State of Remission. And I’d just as soon keep it that way, thank you very much. So I really do wish that Facebook would stop placing Zelboraf ads on my news feed page. That’s just plain creepy.

With my cap off to all the badasses enduring grueling Stage IV treatments and dealing with the cruel side effects, expense, and time away from home and loved ones, here’s my take on Jackson Browne’s “The Pretender”…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQiXQUGbac0&feature=related


I'm going to find myself a trial
That’s just made to put C ‘way
I'm going to pray a bunch in the morning
And go see docs each day
And when the evening rolls around
I'll go on home and lay my body down
And when the morning light comes streaming in
I'll get up and do it again
Amen
Say it again
Amen

I want to know what became of the changes
I waited for meds to bring
Were they only the wishful dreams
Of some better new shape of things
I've been aware of the time going by
They say in the end there’s a light that’s so bright
And when the morning light comes streaming in
I’ll get up and do it again
Amen

Caught between the longing for life
And the struggles with the healthcare vendors
Where telephones ring and the bills mail brings
And the claims man pounds you tender
Where C veterans dream of new fright
Wide awake in the dead of night
And the patients solemnly wait
For a nice scan render
Out into the cool of the evening
Strolls the Contender
He knows that all his hopes and dreams
Begin and end there

Ah the laughter of the warriors
As they post through the night
Leaving something for the others
Good to draw on for fight
And tear at C world with all their might
While the meds bearing their dreams
Wade into fight

I'm going to find myself a cure
That can show me what after means
And I’ll fill in the missing colors
In my future’s paint-by-number dreams
And then I’ll put my rose glasses on
And I’ll take drugs until my strength is gone
And when the morning light comes streaming in
I’ll get up and do it again
Hang it up again

I'm going to be a happy idiot
And battle with the evil specter
Where the meds take aim and lay their claim
To the heart and the soul of Black Cancer
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can’t buy
Though new drugs could have been a defender
Are you there?
Say a prayer for the Contender
Who started out so young and strong
Never to surrender