The Lady in Pink
================

* Rachel Margaret Anne Brown

*   Poetry
*   breast cancer
*   patient narratives
*   surgeon narratives

From the cancer patient to the surgeon

By Rachel Brown

> There was a young lady who said
> 
> As she lay—quite exposed—in a bed
> 
> “When poking around
> 
> I think that I've found
> 
> A lump that has filled me with dread”

> So they kneaded and massaged and squeezed
> 
> And sampled a smidgeon to freeze
> 
> And he told her quite straight
> 
> That her cancer was late
> 
> But he'd cut it all out—if she pleased.

> Then she said to the surgical team
> 
> “I think that your plans are extreme
> 
> Though you may be the best
> 
> You are only the guest
> 
> Of boobs owned and grown by a queen.”

> But when he had done what they do
> 
> She found that her outlook was new
> 
> When her breast disappeared
> 
> Her foot reappeared
> 
> She'd a vertical view of her shoe

> And she thought—now he'd done with his knife—
> 
> She was going to get on with her life
> 
> She said to herself,
> 
> “I am not on the shelf
> 
> And my girls have always looked nice”

> Then said the young lady in pink,
> 
> “The results of mastectomy stink
> 
> Though my tits are pits
> 
> I just love them to bits
> 
> Can you give them a tweak, do you think?”

> For Alison and Martha, and all those women who face cancer with courage and style.

## Footnotes

*   Competing interests None.

*   Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.