SHE WANTS TO LEAVE

She wants to leave.
She won’t fight to stay.
She is embattled in a way
That only her body and mind conceives.

She wants to leave
Because she is so tired.
Hope is not deride.
I no longer see noted smiles
Her eyes are no longer alive,
They can see only the difficult miles
That she has been through.

She wants to leave us.
We, who love her so.
With no other way out
She exits without a shout
By the slow death door.
We could have given more.

Like a dying spider I once saw
Her mind and body withdraw.
I never said: “Do you want to leave?”
I was so afraid
The answer would be too hard
Words spoken from her heart
“I want to go”.

I am watching her leave and can’t prevent
The final, lasting, anguished event.
I hold her trembling body core;
I sense the invisible door
That her life-force is willing to
Slip through.

Please don’t leave us, the lost
You, have given with great cost.
To all who take and expect
Greater gifts with no regret.
They can’t understand your pain
That falls upon you like unjust rain.
Please stay…
Summer will come again.

Earthene Fleming September 3, 2003
Author's Comments:
"This is about a man who is losing his beloved partner and wife. He feels if he can just get her to fight and hang on, he will keep her just a little longer. He is dealing with recriminations (real or imagined)."