Carpe Diem
Sleeping like…
Stopping herself mid sentence
The phrase too perfect to exclaim
She peered into the room
Where her Mother’s last days
Lived in a kind of innocent joy
Peppered with excruciating pain
Every day a journey
This one quiet and gentle
Her soft snore revealing nothing
Her open mouth seemed
Her soul’s easy exit
Lavender perfume
Purposefully administered
Abated the dull roar of transition
While friends whispered incantations
Of what still needed to be done
Once again she stepped over the threshold
Into an unworldly experience of love
A love almost unbearable
As passage seemed eminent
And all seemed in agreement
Perhaps one more rally
One more chance to share stories
But having not spoken in three days
It seemed impossible to imagine
She sunk into the bedside witness chair
And laying back to perhaps join her Mother’s dreams
She fell fast asleep
Awakening from a peaceful, dreamless sleep
She knew it to be her time to say good-bye
Placing her lips on her Mother’s cheek
Knowing it might be the final life kiss
She once again breathed in her scent
As flashes of childhood roared by
Whispering their secret mantra
“I love you so…always have and always will”
She took her leave without looking back
“I love you so…always have and always will”
She knew it was her time
Their mutual love might delay her passing
As if still in that dreamless sleep
She exited her Mother’s apartment
Walking down the hall
She moved through the front door
And as she breathed in the fresh air
She looked up into the sky
To see a new moon
Just three hours later
Her angelic caretaker
A buffed, soft spoken giant of a man
Witnessed her Mother’s last breath
He shared with the Daughter
It was gentle and sweet
And as Mother and Daughter
Celebrated a new beginning
A kind of metaphoric birth ensued
Both stepping soundly into a new life