Our Backs Against the wall

Our backs against the wall... I wrote this piece while receiving Chemotherapy at Jefferson University Hospital 11 years ago. While my eyes scanned the room that day, I wrote what I saw, and I felt a kinship with the people who lined the walls... All of us in Naugahyde recliners, seated with our backs to the wall and everyone receiving one form or another of Chemo. The words came out in one single flow, and when I was done my paper was rippled from pleasant and hopeful tears. tjh

It doesn't matter if you are young or you're old, it doesn't discriminate between the bashful and the bold.
We are Asian, we're African, we're Irish we're one. We are Christian, we're Jewish, we are Buddhist, we are none.
It doesn't play favorites you get what you get, for richer or poorer, it doesn't matter a bit.
We are thrown together all for one and one for all. We're determined to fight with our backs against the wall.
We are an odd group of people, 21 in all. We sit with our arms extended and our backs against the wall. We have one thing in common, it's this dreaded disease. Your social status doesn't matter, it brings you to your knees.
It doesn't play favorites to my left or my right. This odd group of people so determined to fight through the sticks and the stabs that come with the cure. It doesn't discriminate, of that fact I'm sure.
We are thrown together, then assigned to a chair, some of us coiffed, some with no hair. Our arms are extended, our backs to the wall, receiving the cure no hesitation at all.
It doesn't discriminate, if you doubt look around. We are 18, we're 80. We are slim and we're round. Here's to the cure, may it be equally as blind to the people it touches, leaving no one behind.
We're an odd group of people, determined and sure. Our arms are extended receiving the cure. Let the cure not discriminate, Touch one of us touch all. For you'd be amazed what's accomplished when your back is against the wall.

Thom Jordan Holden - Cancer Survivor