(A lone elderly man holds his wife's hand, for maybe the last time, and whispers. As she sleeps)

Although your beauty may fade with age

My only love
Don't you dare leave me alone

Although the shadows like midday angels may slowly appear

Creeping in
Sent from above

To take you home

Although your smiles may diminish in numbers

As our old world slumbers

Although your inner sun
May have ebbed and lost its shine

With the passing of time

Although I may not say it often enough
Although my mind may be elsewhere

I do so love you

So try to lift up your tired heart, my love, and relight your fires

Try to erase the numbness to regain the sharpness

Ignore the changes with the turn of each of life's many pages

Although you may think you've lost your inner shine

Carry this wondrous prose, just deep within that beautiful mind

A simple thought I just send

From me to you
My love

For this is not the end
Only our new beginnings
To start winning

Hold my hand
Tighter
Show me you're still mine

Surreptitiously, beyond all the grayest of skies

For I am yours forever, beyond what people might say and conspire

And here I still stand, with eyes glazed lit

Like the first day I met you
Still under your mesmerising power

Lips pursed, looking for my own loving nurse
To ignite my fires

For I breathe in your shadows

Walk in your footsteps, just craving to stop your tears
As surely as the Lord wept

May you always be mine, my divine gift

Whose Love bestows my life with so much happiness and bliss

For if you leave me now
Wilting alone, if you go home
I'll cry

And inside
You'll leave me alone to slowly wither and die

So fight my love
Fight to live

For together,
We still have so much more to share and give

(Man bows and kisses his wife's soft hands as her tired eyes slowly open)

(C)
Copyright John Duffy