Goodbye

Author's note: This poem was written for my best friend, Amanda, while she was fighting cancer. She passed away January 10, 2006.

How can I say goodbye to you?
I don't think you know how much I cared.
Your friendship means everything to me.
Someone please help me; I'm so scared.

Why do you have to go now?
There's so much more life to live.
If you could only stay with me,
I'd offer everything I could give.

You're sitting in your hospital bed,
Smiling bravely through the pain.
I can't take the hurt anymore.
I am going to go insane.

The doctors say it is cancer.
There's nothing they can do.
I'm going out of my mind.
How could this happen to you?

I wish I'd spent more time with you
Instead of caught up in my life,
Enthralled all in my new marriage,
Trying to be a good wife.

I wish I could turn back the clock
And spend more time with you.
You know I would have done so
If I had only had a clue.

Don't worry 'bout me, you say,
I'm going to a better place.
You sit there so calmly
As tears stream down my face.

Now the doctors say your time is near,
Your end is close at hand.
Life now seems so fleeting,
Like writing in the sand.

Let this be a lesson to you all.
Life is way too short to wait.
You never know when they'll be gone,
Taken by the fickle hand of fate.