published poem about caring for my dying sister.

Crunching of snow,
The sting of the north wind,
Hauling the cord of wood over to the porch.
I feel a sense of peace.
It wasn't the completion of a chore,
There were many.

It was the inner satisfaction that I could do it.
And all depended upon me.
My efforts were for my sister
Who lies on the bed, fighting the continual pain.
My heart aches every time I see her wince in silence,
And the fact that I cannot change things haunts me.

Listening to music
Floating softly in the air,
I feel the strength of tone reverberating through the door,
Warming the room and
Reminding me of days gone by,
When life as a messenger to my soul.

But, all too often, I let time
Slip through the chords.
And now as I try to stoke the fire,
Shovel the walk,
Break the frozen ice in the barn buckets,
I see the bird's sweet great upon the window.

And I realize
The reality of my world
Is the life of constant change.
And I cannot alter her destiny,
Anymore that I can map out
My own.

I watch each slow and labored breath.
And let my love for her
Reach no boundaries.
As she drifts into a world unknown to me,
The sisterhood of our souls
Becomes our eternal bond.

So I chant her song
Of the birds
And of all the animals that peacefully come
To Cricket Song Farm,
A beautiful chorus of diversity,
Because it is a constant star in my universe.

And I am, as I always will be,
There for her,
Listening to the crickets
Singing their nocturnal melodies
As they whisper
Her name to me.