A TIME TO DIE

A TIME TO DIE

She was old, her fragile body
wracked with pain each day;
Sleepless at night, she prayed
for release, a time to die.
Prayers unanswered, she breathed
with a monumental effort;
He looked at her with compassion
and took her glass, filling it
with a lethal poison,
asking her to drink.
The bitter fluid ran down her throat,
no worse than she had tasted before;
medicine bottles all in a row..
it was time, and she could go.
Free at last of bonds of earth,
pain intense to be a memory;
One last look into loving eyes
filled now with tears.
A gnarled hand reached up
and wiped them away.

Countrymom
3/6/05