livedo

Here again,
in these halls,
the putrescence
is horrific this morning,
yet I push on
past the fungating wounds,
and the emesis basins.

I see you
from the moment I turn the corner,
and I know,
in a single glance,
that death is at hand.

Your palms cold and pale,
a sign of the catastrophic hemorrhage,
that is suffocating
your mind;
a heart screaming
to keep up with
the brains demands.

You have passed beyond
pain,
and for a moment I take solace,
and sit;
filling the void
to prevent another soul
in this hell of a place
from dying alone.

Your hands limp,
and peaceful in mine;
my hands
full of anger and sadness
as I had held these hands
just days before,
when life was vibrant
and hopeful.

Now sitting
with my hand in yours
watching the slow
decline
in breaths
and heart beats;
I see you escape
from this mortal prison.

I pray now
that you sit
in peace,
in love,
and with hope
for a better day.

rage against

I am here again
in the darkness
screaming for you,
raging against
your pulseless arrest.

My hands now gripping
a final salvo
the squeal of the charge
growing in the morning
light;
you jump then,
at my touch,
a final
burst
of energy-artificial-iatrogenic.

I pace around your bed
a general at battle,
loosing yet again,
to the war in you heart.

Five weeks now
I have watched you
die;
some quietly overnight,
slipping away from this earthly grasp,
other though, died,
with a warrior by your side,
raging against
your premature escape.

I want you to know
that despite our different origins,
the barriers of culture and language
I have loved you
I have ached for you,
and my heart has
broken
for you.

Standing now
yet again,
as the battle
comes to a quiet close.
I watch you take
your final breath
agonal and deep,
your last effort
to consume this world
one final time,
until you expire-
my hands still
on your empty chest.

Touching you now,
your raging heart quiet,
at last
their is a moment of peace;
until I walk to the next bed,
and my rage consumes me
stoking the fires of war
once again.