The Vigil

the vigil where were you in those seamless days when spirit was saying farewell to its body floating away as a ship out to sea into the sunset all red and gold like the leaves outside the hospital window. did you know I was there that last night touching you, holding on to you I told the tales of us vaguely remembered obscure things about our lives I inspected your hands like pale white lilies they rested on your chest every nail and crease accounted for so I could keep them in mine when loneliness crept in you did not move with the exception of your chest rising and falling in noisy protest against the sea building in your lungs where were you when I left near dawn you must have known some how sensed the lack of presence because you left too.