Death, You Old Rascal!

[Abbara]

Death, You Old Rascal!

I’ve watched you,
down through the years...
I struggled to pour life into veins
faster than you could empty them...
You sat in the corner, stropping your razor...
ready to slice the life line, the silver cord...
if I would just for one second, stop to wipe my brow.

I’ve glimpsed you lurking in corn fields
while broken bodies quiver and gasp for air in the ditch
… and all than stands between you and the injured
is a silvery flicker, the glimmer of a hovering angel wing.

I saw you come down and out the birth canal,
the baby wrapped in your cloak, a waxen dolly
given and taken back before he saw the light of day
The young mother grasping to hang on,
and then following you into the forever together land.

We beat the air in vain, hanging IV bottles,
sucking up medications to shoot into the tubing
that led to hearts which beat no more.
Sometimes we won. Sometimes you stole our prize.

So, I knew who I was dealing with
when my own beloved walked too near your trail.
I was informed and I was vigilant.
I was attentive. I was assertive....
and then I stomped and screamed and raised hell!
It was as if they couldn’t see you,
this team of strangers,
and there you were... stropping to beat the band.

Did I stop to wipe my brow for just one second too long?
Did I give up too soon? Or had you just learned new ways
to sneak around me and attack where I wasn’t watching?
You took me by surprise... right in the middle of the sentence
my hearts love was speaking,
cutting him off between ‘right’ and ‘now.’

Oh, you are soooo fast with that razor...
I didn’t even see the glitter..
but I knew you had come and gone
quick as a flash...
and you took my love with you.

You wily old rascal!

© by Abbara 5-20-2004