No one would think just by looking at you
That your health was anything but robust
That deep within the marrow of your bones
Blooming like some secret hideous flower
A cancer grew unchecked
Perhaps it was your hard-fought and won battle
With this disease that so colours all the rest ...
We were almost packed and ready for a long over-due
holiday
When I heard the clatter down in the kitchen
I was upstairs in the bedroom and went running
To find you sprawled—your coffee mug smashed
On the floor beside you
I remember thinking first how your hipbones were jutting
Through the denim of your jeans, how you could still
stand
To gain a few pounds— before noticing your hand
Curled claw-like on your chest
And the stillness there
Both hand and chest, motionless.
A massive heart-attack they said
You never knew what hit you...
That made two of us
Today I stand at the window
Gazing through grief's curtain
Wondering what to do next
The snow is almost gone
Down by your garden shed
And crocuses are starting to poke up.
S.E.Ingraham©
