The Enchanting Life on Backus

Oncology Ward A2
Poems by Billy Hammond & Bruce Hirsch
Introduction By Dennis Slater, MD

William (Billy) Hammond, age eighty-one, and Bruce Hirsch, age seventy, met on ward A2 while receiving treatment for
metastatic bladder cancer. Billy was a burly, blue-collar type, happy-go-lucky, engaging and handsome with watery pale
blue eyes. He worked as an electrician for the Local 35 Union for over thirty years. Bruce was solemn, cerebral, soft-
spoken but intense, and insidiously emotive. He was a highly celebrated English teacher at Griswold High for thirty-five
years. Both Billy and Bruce fought courageously against their cancers, both with loving support from their wives and
families. They exchanged many conversations, supporting one another… and these poems of friendship and brotherly love.

To Bruce,
A true gentleman and scholar. Your career in teaching Poem in Praise of Billy Hammond
has influenced future generations to go out and leave By Bruce A. Hirsch
their mark on the world. You have shared with me
your love of poetry, and I suppose you have written When I started chemotherapy, I knew not
many. I would like to present you with one I have what to expect;
written just for you. Stay strong my friend. When I finished, I found out the truth about respect.
–Billy Hammond I met a man named Billy who always had a smile;
And that little giggle showed he would endure
Kemosabe it all in style.
By William Hammond We got along right from the start, and talked and
A Poem to Bruce Hirsch laughed a lot.
We’d seek each other out each time, and I realized
The chemo room is where people meet what I’d got.
Fighting a cancer they hope to beat. His attitude was inspiring no matter what
Enter as strangers, leave as friends he went through;
Staying strong till the bitter end. The model of strength and spunkiness which nothing
The professor and the electrician, opposites as can be. could undo.
One a scholar and poet, the other with only a GED.
An imagination we share as we look to the sky; When I think of Billy, that smile greets me right away,
Seeing Jesus among the clouds as they pass by. Then he goes on to prop me up like I had saved
Your words and your wisdom have impressed the day.
me so much. But I admire and thank him from the bottom of
From me take my attitude so positive and strong, take my heart.
beauty and grace and God’s gentle touch. Though he calls me “Professor,” he’s the one who’s so
Like the Lone Ranger and Tonto, lifelong partners very smart.
and friends. – July 23, 2017
You are my “chemo”sabe until our journey does end.

- 36 - O P E N JO URNAL • W I NTE R 2018