Hurt

God it hurts 
to see you like this
weak and in pain
in so much distress

god it hurts
to feel you so thin
to feel your bones
where there should be fat skin

god it hurts
to wipe your pale face
to touch your cold hands
to massage your aches

god it hurts
to feed you my love
to nurse and relieve you
in plastic gloves

god it hurts
to bathe you each day
to wash your soiled body
no, I won’t go away

god it hurts
to roll you over
your strength is gone
you, my past lover

god it hurts
to see you waste
your senses fading
losing smell and taste

god it hurts
to sit by your bed
as this sickness progresses
it fills me with dread

god it hurts
to hear what you said
in your delerium
it hurts so bad

god it hurts
when you get pressure sores
you no longer move
can you take anymore?

god it hurts
when the pain relief fails
when you grimace and seize
wracked frame so frail

god it hurts
but not how it hurts you
I wish I could do more
to help you get through

god it hurts
when you don’t talk back
your eyes are dull
your jaw is slack

god it hurts
to watch your last breaths
to see your life leave us
replaced by death

god it hurts
holding you dead
your skeletal frame
with me alone on the bed

god it hurts
to kiss you good bye
on your dry cracked blue lips
last kiss, last cry?

Ownership

Now is the time to lay it
down
to accept the role I should have
owned
to be responsible after all these
years
for the grief and suffering pain and
tears
in my ignoble name I make this
vow
to be better, stronger and to
show
I am of moral fibre, ethical, of
worth
who has earned this precious time on
earth
who can turn his demons into
strengths
who will do the right thing by any
length
what does it matter some might
say?
it matters nought at end of
day
to which I reply, gracious and
emphatically
it might not matter to you, it matters
to me
there is no pleasure in a life blind, accursed
and unfair
while there can be joy in a life of seeing, kindness
and care