DORIS
The pain doesn’t hurt now
No more pills to swallow
No hospital visits or treatments to follow
The nurses aren’t needed
Sleep is uninterrupted
The cells in her body are no longer corrupted
No more surgery, no more fuss
No more physical decline
She is free of her misery
but I’m not free of mine.
The worry is over, though
The stress at her state
As she weakens by the week in a bed, prostrate
Hardly talking
Hardly breathing
Hardly there, as she fades
Is replaced by the loss of a dearly belovéd
Felt by each and every one she has tenderly mothered
Busy with a funeral
No time yet to grieve
But knowing it is coming, there’s the rub
It’s best not to think of it
Get on with something else
Get some work done, put the telly on
Or ignore it down the pub
But it’s coming, you know it
as surely as death
The emptiness
The loneliness
The fear
The unwinnable wish that she was still here
I cry not for her
She’s escaped from her pain
I cry only for me
For I won’t see her again
Solace in the fact we all have to face this sometime? Fine poem.
I think a lot of us can relate to this PP, poignant and so heart breaking but part of life.........
A poignant piece which you have crafted so well .The poem weeps for both the death and the survivor and two lifetimes linked. This brilliantly demonstrated your use of different genres of poetry , and the ease with which you write comedy or tragedy. A touching piece. tfs.
So heart-touchingly real. My late grandmother's name is Doris, and this beautifully crafted poem says it all.
Indeed death if takes away the beloved it is an irreparable loss to the most attached one!
This is good work, and a departure from your usual satirical and/or ironic style. I appreciate it. Thanks.
When death separates the one left behind is in shock. totally. A reminder of what is to come for all of us. well penned.