71 days since you looked at me clenching your phone as your knuckles fade into the brightest of whites & water droplets consume your bottom lashes 71 days since you told me she wasn't going to make it
68 days since we sat in my car silent tears crawling down your sweet cheeks outside of that place they call hospice & we call hell
*55 days since you called me from school and begged that i pick you up so i did and we drove we drove aimlessly until we found a diner to eat at a diner that held no significance no memory of that sweet woman you knew you were about to lose
51 days since you told me "i want her to let go now" "she needs to be free"
50 days since you said your good-byes you told her you loved her and all she could manage was a tender squeeze of the hand
48 days since your father fell asleep for three minutes holding her cold hand and within that short one hundred and eighty seconds 3:30 a.m. she slipped into her next life dressed in white, i'm sure leaving behind this family of now only 4.
47 days since my mother watched a shadowed figure leave & disappear from my little brother's room at four a.m. as he slept
it was her, i'm sure*
42 days since i stood next to you looking down at a body no longer full of life draped in pink holding your hand
33 days
24 days
16 days
9 days
3 days
& last night all i could say was i'm sorry as i held your trembling hands soothing your rapid repetitive breathing & promising those swollen eyes that you will one day be held by her again instead of me as you dance with her in the sky
in loving memory of one of God's newest & most beautiful angels beth ann bradbury