A Cold's Not Just A Cold
By Paint Her in Color Founder, Laura Spiegel
It’s just a cold, it’s just a cough
You promise you’ll be fine
But what about the rest of us?
We’re running out of time
The chemo makes our bodies weak
We’re too young to get sick
We are immunocompromised
We don’t fall for your trick
Your sniffle here, your sneezing there
Pierce straight into our hearts
That snotty nose you just wiped clean
A dagger did impart
That cough released into your hands
Will spread with every touch
Like ghoulish fingers stretching out
To grasp us in their clutch
A cold’s not just a cold, you see,
It’s so much more than that
It’s countless pills and looming threats
Of IVs ordered stat
Please wash your hands we beg of you
It’s not a minor thing
Stay home if you have coughing fits
That like a shotgun ring
Your goal to miss no days of work
Is not an honored badge
Your child’s raised hand when roll is called
Means zilch if he feels bad
Your “No big deal” and “Just relax”
Bring tension, nerves, and fear
“I understand, I’ll help you out”
Is what we long to hear
We wish that it was not this way
We’d give most anything
To wave away concerns of germs
And all the stress they bring
Until that day, we ask of you
Think twice before you go
Outside into our world and spread
Your sickness to and fro
Pause for just a blink or two
And ask if you would still
Expose your child, your mom, your spouse
If he or she were ill
If he had cancer or MS
If chemo made her weak
If cystic fibrosis made it hard
To kick a cold with ease
Or if your child was still a babe
Too young to get vaccines
If RSV could send him south
And bring you to your knees
Would you still release your coughs
And catch them in your palms?
Would you still mask fever
With a Tylenol and move on?
I like to think our world is good
And others mean no ill
That words like this can open eyes
And hearts and minds until
There is a day when none of us
Is immunocompromised
When science works its wonders
And lifts all up with the tide
Until that day, I do have faith
That all of you will see
It’s nothing but a mother’s love
That fuels these words from me