Death and Life

This is about a ill person on their death bed

Surrounded by nothing and everything -

the clouds, the stars, the sun. They greet you.

You are welcomed by them; dancing in the

delight of your arrival. You are them -

 

but you are also not… yet. Drifting away

like a balloon, the air swirling around you.

You bob up and down, down and up. You

dream of this world, here you are happy.

Here you are free. But reality confines you -

to a bed made of glue.

 

Your lungs are forced to breathe air; every

breathe is a ragged, slow gasp for life. You cling;

you hang on to - nothing. Your ears ring, the high-

pitched whine reverberates in your head. You

wonder if the dog laying at your feet can hear it too.

 

Your eyes close, you dream again. You long to finally

be free; to finally reach that place of peace - where the ringing

stops, your lungs inflate with the fresh air. Where the dog laying 

at your feet can no longer feel your sorrow

Author's Note

As always, I only ask that you tell me your honest opinion

Reviews

[barleygirl]

The best part of your poem is that it's "all over the place"! This would be how I imagine it, as one fights between the deliciously seductive chance to leave this world & all the woes, but as one nears the final threshold of living, suddenly realizing how hard it will be to really leave life. You use many unexpected & vivid ways of showing how this might feel thru imagery. Lots of people write about death, but this is one of the most realistic (as I would imagine it might feel) I've read (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie