An Hour After Crying

inspired by Dressed in Poetry's "Lesser of Two Evils"

She hurt

Like eyes hurt

An hour after crying,

When night has come,

And all is tired,

And there is no more air to breathe,

And all is dry as

Dry as death that

 

She could not embrace

 

Death that

She could not reach,

That haunted her waking dreams

And sleeping dreams

And the dreams that belonged in the blend between waking and sleeping—that blend that seemed to imprison her last years of life.

 

If you could call this life.

 

If you could call four tubes life:

A breathing tube

And IVs and

All this other stuff that she did not understand, but

That hurt

Like eyes hurt

An hour after crying.

 

And she was sick of eating her

Food through tubes

And hearing conversations

Through pity and tears.

 

She begged to die,

But her children

Begged her to live,

 

So

What

Could

She

Do?

 

 

Reviews

[Dressed in Poetry]

Awww. This is terribly sad. I like the comparison between how she feels and the feeling you have an hour after crying. It's great.