The Night

When I came to say good-bye that night,

Already you were drifting off

Beyond the realms of speech and sight

Or any common sight. Your cough

At last was silent; eyes half-closed,

Unseeing, yet I knew you heard,

Felt my kiss, without a word

Consented to let go. I dozed,

And slept for half an hour or so –

Awoke to words my sister said:

Come on – Mum died a few minutes ago.

And so we sat beside your bed

To say our last goodnight, and saw

Your thin neck taut and stretched with strain –

But all that gone now, and the pain

Was past, so you would cry no more.

Then while we had a cup of tea

The nurses wrapped you up, so small

And shrivelled, save the swollen knee

Where cancer broke the bone. And all

At once my flesh began to creep:

For in place of my comfortable mother

Was a sharp-nosed shape in white, quite other,

Which frightened me and took away my sleep.

 

©Virginia Rounding, 1989

First published in  The Eclectic Muse, Vol.4, No.3, Christmas 1994