Hospice Whispers

(A lone elderly man holds his wife's hand, for maybe the last time, and whispers. As she sleeps) Although your beauty may fade with age My only love Don't you dare leave me alone Although the shadows like midday angels may slowly appear Creeping in Sent from above To take you home Although your smiles may diminish in numbers As our old world slumbers Although your inner sun May have ebbed and lost its shine With the passing of time Although I may not say it often enough Although my mind may be elsewhere I do so love you So try to lift up your tired heart, my love, and relight your fires Try to erase the numbness to regain the sharpness Ignore the changes with the turn of each of life's many pages Although you may think you've lost your inner shine Carry this wondrous prose, just deep within that beautiful mind A simple thought I just send From me to you My love For this is not the end Only our new beginnings To start winning Hold my hand Tighter Show me you're still mine Surreptitiously, beyond all the grayest of skies For I am yours forever, beyond what people might say and conspire And here I still stand, with eyes glazed lit Like the first day I met you Still under your mesmerising power Lips pursed, looking for my own loving nurse To ignite my fires For I breathe in your shadows Walk in your footsteps, just craving to stop your tears As surely as the Lord wept May you always be mine, my divine gift Whose Love bestows my life with so much happiness and bliss For if you leave me now Wilting alone, if you go home I'll cry And inside You'll leave me alone to slowly wither and die So fight my love Fight to live For together, We still have so much more to share and give (Man bows and kisses his wife's soft hands as her tired eyes slowly open) (C) Copyright John Duffy