missing

"Master, pity they servant ! 
He is deaf and 3 parts blind.
He cannot catch thy commandments. 
He cannot read Thy mind. 
Oh, leave him not to his loneliness; 
nor make him thy kitten scorn.
He hath none other God than Thee 
since the year that he was born . 

Lord look down on they servant! 
Bad things have come to pass. 
There is no heat in the mid-day sun, 
nor health in the way side grass. 
His bones are full of an old disease-
his torments run and increase. 
Lord, make haste with thy lightenings 
and grant him quick release."
 —-Rudyard Kipling, ‘ His Apologies ‘ 1932

I watched a friend take her last breath today.

We prayed, ‘Hail Mary’ and the “Our Father’

Then she passed…

I miss her terribly.

Unfair, at least to my understanding now.

Unfair to me.

She was fried chicken,

Hometown laughter,

Short streets.

She was “riding around”,

Coca cola,

Music on the radio.

We talked of ‘new loves’,

With new hopes,

As we shared our dreams.

She was simpler times,

Long phone calls,

Sharing all…

She was late night rescue,

Stranded from dates

Gone bad.

She was laughter at oddity

Of pregnant bodies

And invisible feet…

She was death,

The painful recognition of

The ugliness of disease…

She was the beauty

Of the spirit, shinning past

All the let-downs of cancer…

She was a lifetime friend

You never ask for,

Only recognize a lifetime late…

As I sit by her bed,

Watching her breath,

And my tears are for me.

Copyrighted:   2016 CMM