Ten years ago,
You laid limp on the bed
In the room with the palm tree print
All over the bed spread and walls.
With your chin tilted up,
And your mouth slightly parted
And no one knew if you were asleep
Or not.

But in that room with the palm trees.
In that "paradise"
With the window that perfectly framed the lagoon-style pool
And untouched nature just behind it
And a whole world that kept turning.

No one could explain why such a tragedy
Would befall such a wonderful human.
I don't know if you ever saw yourself as wonderful.
I don't know if you believed you were allowed to be human.
But the world owed you more than all it took.

The nine year old watching you decline,
Waited for you to get up and say you were feeling better.
So when her parents came to tell her you were gone,
She never bought it.

But that tinge of guilt and regret,
Can't keep the grown child from the pills and the *****
And the will to lay limp in the room with the palm trees
And wait for the inevitable.