Three Days to Three Weeks.

  

 

Three days to three weeks,

Simple words, yet a life sentence.

Your world shrank from ward, to room,

From bed to rigid foetal position.

 

The horrified agonies,

Watching you slowly slipping away.

Melting ice through warm fingers,

Sand beneath an unstoppable tide.

 

Where did you go in your deep dreams?

You called out questions, taught in a twilight world unseen.

We swallowed scalds of sobs before they uttered.

Hearts breaking with silent thunder claps, lest we might distress you.

 

“Never forget,” you whispered,

I squeezed your hand,

“I won’t,” I said,

Choking on stone syllables,

Bereft.

 

We furnished the room in faux jollity,

Reminiscing,

Stroking away your pain with ineffectual fingers.

Chestnut curls and soft skin,

Unmarked by the agonies,

We rejoiced to keep you each precious moment.

 

Your birthday, a cakery of confection,

Buntings of love,

You slept through a stream

Of tear moistened visits.

 

I held to your mouth,

A chocolate square,

That you might taste its beloved sweetness.

You took it, savouring the delight,

As if it were your first ever bite.

 

Sly sleep stole away your confusion, your chat, your self,

You began to disappear,

Yet through black shock,

We held you fast in our disbelief.

 

We thought they were wrong,

We prayed it, calling from our hearts,

“Don’t take her,

Choose someone else.”

 

But you drifted away.

A disappeared sunset,

Pollen on a summer wind,

A remembered cherry blossom.

 

Silver balloons jigged next your coffin,

Bouncing happily, mirroring our dance classes,

Joyous as your smile,

Merry as your peal of laughter.

 

The church walls creaked,

Eaten by sorrow,

Cracking with hopeless desolation,

Spying on the raw left behind.

 

Now, I spot you in crowds,

The shoulder of your coat,

The sun on your hair,

I carry the burn of acid emptiness.

 

And I wait for you still,

Expecting your call,

The light of your smile,

Laughs we might share, but,

Three days to three weeks stole it all.