The end has now come
Once lucid eyes dulled
Shallow breaths begin
Food and drink have ceased
Sleep is now constant
Bowels shut down
Pulse becomes faint
Bluish-hued skin
Grimace of pain
Eyes roll back
Body cools
Moans softly
With love
Speaks name
Gone
May 15, 2022
**Side note: This was my first experience with writing a Diminished Hexaverse poem. I thought it was a fun challenge. I chose to write it about the very last moment before death because I watched my maternal grandma take her final breath while in hospice care.
Uncharmed by the bloom of fresh roses white,
I shall with the mute prop of unspeaking sticks,
Like a bored mollusk loathe my slowing walks;
And pine for eternal still with wee cursing clicks.
Uninspired by thrills of chart-topping songs,
And no longer revived by their lisping beats,
And aided by sad hammers and rioting tongs,
I soon shall fault all Earth and her tepid treats.
Not fresh world's trending fashion’s catalogues,
Nor its luring vogues in their cyclic monologues,
Shall this last pilgrim's going even slightly delay;
All men’s warmth unwanted obstacle in my way.
Thievish night's erstwhile dreaded gloom
Shan’t prove such a feared quieting tomb,
For her dusky shroud may better warmth
Spell than all sluttish breath's jaded cloth.
I’ll gradually disdain these slow-turning rounds,
And slowly uninterestedly rise to stiller grounds.
4 for Howard
You didn't bargain
for hearts & flowers,
nor hungry little girls
in a woman's body,
nor woods with beer cans
and broken bottles.
I would have devoured you:
appetite so long denied
it was the larger part
of me. You set sail
on my lake of tears,
your red sail
confident and bright
against my gray skies.
But, I saw you naked
once or twice--
you cannot
take that with you.
The thing that mattered most to her was gone
her love for him had been
wild and unpredictable.
They had grown together into one being
their love beyond words...beyond logic.
She gave all that she was
that most private part of her
to this one man.
Vows were made to love one another
to spend eternity
learning together through life's' travels
while fending off the evils of the world.
Their nights of love were filled
with much promise and many hours
of blissful happiness.
She was all for him, he was all for her.
But fate had in mind to work against this
deaths call came to them
as a whisper in the night
catching them both unprepared
it was the one thing never expected
for they weren't ready to accept Gods' plan.
She held him in her arms
through that which was to be
their last night together.
Mornings first light
was to bring an end
to that which had mattered
the most to her.
With a heavy heart
she released her love for him
to the angels and walked away
vowing never to forget.