We Held the Future

I stared at her as she lay there so lovely,

And I wept for the hell she would have to go through,

Just to have a second chance at life.

And I wept because I had to leave her,

For soon I would be off to the airport and home,

To bind up the pieces of my life that unraveled in my absence.

And I held her close as she lay there,

In that hospital room on the sixth floor.

In our embrace I held my sister,

And our histories, our memories,

And all of the joy and all of the pain,

Of our existence on earth together.

And in that embrace, we held the future,

Looking ahead to the life, the inspiration, the joy,

The reasons for putting up with the constant indignities,

Which accompany this illness and long hospital stays.