His Hospital Bed

He looked up from his bed,

I still could not believe he doesn't see me,

Staring down into his snowflake head,

Half a century and he still could not see,

He's been blind  for a while even to mornings,

And the world became a trail of strange voices,

With fake reassurance and unfair warnings,

Such distant dull drowned up noises,

He's a manifestation of what has been,

Oh, if he only knew how I loved him,

How I love him still with a force unseen,

It's too late, I'm afraid, the chances are slim

Fifty years I have tried to save his tears,

As he drained his soul of all the light,

Thinking the darkness might quench his fear

How tormenting it is to be your lover's blight.

One night I followed him on the street,

As he walked into our town's graveyard,

On his right there was love, on his left defeat,

His tears fell on my grave heavy and hard,

And I closed my eyes and tasted them,

Bitter- love, what happened to your soul?

If I could just reach out one more time to him,

I could tell him there's no reason to grieve at all,

And now he's gone into oblivion on his bed,

Not only paralyzed but frozen,

And dust smells of everything he's said,

No one comprehends the path he's chosen,

No one had seen the memories he paints,

Or knows the names he so passionately mentions,

All his youth joyous and proud in time faints,

His dry veins are sinews death pulls into tension,

I hear his soul all the way up here,

I see the pride leaving his inner eye,

I can feel his breath drawing near,

Now I hear our daughter's worried cry,

And all the places of his life collapse

Into his mind's universe closing black-hole,

All into a silent prayer echoing, that perhaps

The merciful God can save his sinful soul,

The white coats float in and out of his space,

If he was able to move he would push them away,

He doesn't need saving, can't you see it on his face,

He just needs one last transparent moment to pray.

His heart in my chest quickens one last time,

And I close my eyes and laugh aloud,

It fills the heavens and the angels chime,

Prepare for his soul coming on the next cloud,

The doctors left, my daughter's cry got louder

Now it's her turn to stand strong on her own,

It's time for her to make us even prouder,

It's time to set up another tombstone,

Then I carried him in my arms, cold and dead,

I carried him through the roads of heaven,

My fellow lovers cheered like we're newly wed,

Through to the lake where immortality is given,

And there stood our chapel of pearl white,

And there I knelt at the banks of the lake,

Drenched his soul in and it shone out bright

Love, I've waited long for this moment's sake.

Your eyes open and you rise brighter than a sun,

Like you never knew darkness, you were never blind,

Your arms move wildly, your feet, they run,

Like all your frozen years were only in your mind,

And you pull me in an embrace unbound by time,

Your wet hair dripping silver on my shoulder,

And all our memories, and all my rhymes

Are resurrected, a promise we'll never get older,

And for one last time at the beginning of eternity,

We see death- the death of all bitterness and hate,

Drowning at the feet of our heightened humanity,

Killed by the kiss of my soul mate.