Times flies
I am stopped
Six weeks
Means nothing
Am I to keep tracking
In short
Yes
No choice really
What else can I do
Why?
Do I need a reason?
It's rhetorical
Don't bother
That day
11:25 pm
November 6th
Now
December 18th
11:25 pm
Two months from your birthday
Did you know it would be your last?
Sadly, it was known to me
Don't ask me how or why
I called the next day
It was a Friday after work
Ann drove
or maybe I drove up
Ellen came
We got there on eight
Stayed until half nine
Noel and Roisin called over
You stayed up a while
There was a pain
On the upper chest
Under the right side
Turned out your liver wasn't great
That was the Friday 19 th October
Would you believe
On the Sunday 21st you agreed to an ambulance
Earlier we your children
Spoke
Agreed
James and clare would go down
Tonight
Not tomorrow
You said there was no tomorrow
You were right
The ambulance was for Enniskillen or Derry
Doesn't natter
You told him Craigavon
By Monday the tests told. Everything
But the scan said gall stones
Not even close
By Friday the second scan
Proper scan
Cancer
No treatment
No hope
Nothing
On Monday evening brian took you home
You were sitting downstairs in your window seat when I got there with Ellen
By the following Tuesday you were gone
11:25 pm
Gone
Just gone
No more
At ten I sat with Brendan
I felt your hand
You had cooled
Your breathing slowed
In the gaps I held my own
Your breathing sounded
Different
Faint
But yes we both agreed
We both also knew
You had twenty three hours
On average
You were never close to average
You slipped through the curtain of death
Into the arms of light
There were tears
There was the thank God
The one for your sake
Not mine
I had to tell Eamon
This was not so easy
Chrissie next answered
But I couldn't speak
And didn't need to
Ann again my rock in this storm
Instructions
I can do instructions
Doctor
Priest
Noel and Roisin
Mary Fox
Jimmy Fox
I left
Before they took you
I joke to hide the pain
Stay busy
But can't remain
Nanny McFee
Must go
You don't need me now
But I need you
My Father
My child
I phone you every day now
Goodnight
Not goodbye
Never that
Don't ask me to say that
I'll phone you tomorrow
Except I only have today
Forget the phone
I pray
Each today
