Her body is outstretched for her last minutes on earth,

while he wrings his hands instead of drying her tears.

And as her head lay uncomfortably on a crumpled pillow,

he apologizes for taking her for granted for all those years.

Softly spoken words seem to finally flow easily from his mouth

just as she is about to embark on this, her very last journey.

He quietly reveals, “I didn’t say I love you or show you often enough,

and now I guess it’s too late; you are about to leave me.”

Resembling those of the crocodile sort, he now shed copious tears,

but none were wept while they were in the midst of living life,

During the living the two had shared, those days, months and years.

he infrequently showed how much he loved or cared for his wife.

Their common time became history, and he did not appreciate

that she was sharing her life with him, the only one she had to live.

He expected loving from her in every possible way and manner,

selfishly wanting all things of her; all one woman could humanly give.

And yet he did not seem to understand how it felt to be in her shoes:

a woman rarely, if ever, appreciated and always taken for granted

Voicing regrets that he is sorry now is far too little and much too late

as he squirms and sits, with disturbed conscience, by her deathbed

He will never know how her appreciation for just one lone rose;

if, in life, he would have placed that solitary flower in her hand.

And now, she will never know if he places a million flowers on her grave,

regardless of their beauty and fragrance, no matter how very grand.

Never again shall he take her or the love she gave him for granted,

when suddenly, her last breath on earth escapes her mortal shell.

He sobs loudly, but his selfish tears are because she has left him alone

as her soul rises to Heaven, he begins to live in a lonely, earthly Hell.