Hospice Whispers

 

A poignant poem capturing a profound moment of devotion and despair as an elderly man holds a vigil by his sleeping wife's bedside. 

The piece explores the agonising tension between acknowledging her physical decline and desperately pleading with her to fight and stay.

 Through vivid motifs of fading light versus enduring passion, the speaker's absolute love transforms into a final, heartbreaking plea for life before a glimmer of hope breaks through as her eyes slowly open.

(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 greyest 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