And he squeezed my hand tighter
Though how he had the energy I couldn’t comprehend
Because he couldn’t speak
And he couldn’t chew, and his skin was pure ice
His flesh was swollen, two-times too big
He emptied his body through a line
That was connected to a pouch by his bed
As I hid my salty sorrows

His daily view was a pale yellow wall
And a shameful plastic tree
He swallowed capsules; big white capsules,
Small blue cylinders, round red barrels,
And was injected with liquid, to mask the pain
It masked his mind as well
He wasn’t the man I knew for 16 years
But he squeezed my hand tighter

The oxygen pumping into his lungs
Simply wasn’t enough,
Because his shallow breaths became less and less
And between each one I prayed for the next
His eyes were lost into unseen distance
He pulled in one last rickety breath
As I cried out in desperation
And he squeezed my hand tighter