that's nothing

cancer you tell your friend,
as you sit in the late
afternoon sun sipping vodka
tonics.
cancer, the worst kind.
inoperable, there is nothing
anyone can do. she won't make
it through the year.
oh, that's nothing suzie
says, shaking her head.
my cousin lucy had cancer
and she was blind.
she had a seeing eye dog
and a white cane to find
her way around.
not only that, her husband
left her for another man.
oh, you say. that must have
been horrible.
tell me about, she says.
a nightmare, and then she
died.