A Last Moment Loved

that last moment with love

There is a sad and lonely silence about her

her trembling head hanging down upon her long ago sunken chest,

and soft whispers of breathing erratic and aged

as the magazine slips slowly from her grasp to the concrete below. 

 

Daily she sits upon her porch in a silent silo surrounded by activity

of neighbor kids lunging across grassy yards into air conditioned cars

of poodles and beagles towing and being towed by owners in front of her house;

the noise of life just out of her grasp.

 

At such times she first sees all of life happening around her

then slowly, she slips from aware to slumber on the rusted bench

decades of life having tired her bones and weakened her pulse

with the slow escape to memories that soon flood her with remembered love. 

 

In those moments of being all too alone and all too lonely,

she remembers the love of a family now long gone,

parents and brothers and sister that once occupied her every moment

and now occupied only the edges of an ever shrinking domain in her mind. 

 

Soft hugs and kisses upon her cheeks

Laughter and giddiness and life full bloomed

The closeness of someone who cared daily what she felt and thought

the beating of her own heart hidden by the exuberance of a life well lived. 

 

After a bit, the head jerks up again,

and eyes lost between her past and her present try to focus;

not on what she does not have,

but on what she experienced and lived and lost. 

 

In the corner of her eye she sees a yellow flower move towards her

and a girl of 5 walks forward charged with delivering a bouquet to her friend

of dandelions and Iris from the side of the house,

and she stops to smile and to blow a kiss and to place her token of love with the frailty of life. 

 

Their eyes meet then, a woman of 90 and a girl of 5,

and a bond forms that can never be defined,

a life lived well and a life just starting out well

bridged between two of God’s creations. 

 

Off the girl skips and darts, joyous and full of love

and the glimmer of a smile crosses the thin lips of one so beaten

as she feels the love of another one last time

     and then slowly

             closes her eyes

                   to drift off for the very last time to a place where being 5 again is so very possible.