The Day He Passed Away

The macabre motions of time,

So slowly the seconds go

Yet the years painfully drift by.

 

It seems only yesterday I was at my grandfather's bedside,

Choking, dying he bled his final words,

But what he said is now a mist in my mind.

Overcome by emotion, I could not make a sound,

Not even a whimper, not even a cry.

I just helplessly watched as he writhed in the purest pain

And looked a look so longingly into my grandmother's eyes.

 

There was a love there, a devotion, so powerful, so tender.

The way they stared into one another's eyes was chilling to the pit of my soul,

It was as though they knew they would never look again.

The love they held for each other made their painful days a paradise.

Their love was more potent than any emotion I ever knew, or have known since.

It drained my veins of life to see them torn apart.

 

All I could do was weep, weep and pray,

As he drifted closer, yet further from despair,

Further from everything and everyone he had ever known,

And yet, there was no fear in his glassy eyes, not even the slightest glint.

He was heading somewhere he had never been before,

Somewhere he knew nothing about

And the only thing I felt in his final breath,

His final smile, his final tear, was relief.

 

Relief.

 

The spark in his eye was fading, his soul was rising up.

He turned towards my grandma, looked up and stared,

Staring deeper than ever before.

His eyes smiled the way they always used to

As if all the hurt, all the pain, all the suffering had left his side.

 

His mouth opened but no sound could escape,

He had not the energy to summon words.

Nothing, nothing, just silence.

A silence so loud, so piercing.

 

Then his head fell back and his body limp,

Limp and lifeless.

Grandma sobbing at his feet,

But at least he suffers no more.