She would not go gently into the good night
But raged silently against the dying of the light
Her lips tight clenched as each day rose and fell
And even on that final day no one could tell.
No surrender no meek acceptance of the end
Her will like steel just would not bend
She did not want to go
Nor did not want to know
As eternity's door opened
Bit by bit but fought it inch by inch
With all the strength she had.
Acceptance was weakness
Darkness to be resisted.

She was an actress after all
She knew the difference
Between life and death
Between acting and the real world
This was her final exit
The ultimate performance
For which there had been rehearsals
Where nothing was to be pretense.
The final curtain came
She took her bow
To a great applause
It rocked the silences in the earth
Breath by breath
Heave by heave
She pulled on what was left
Right to the last
"I want to go home," she said.
"Sit quietly in my chair.
And have a beer"
The door closed.

She was my lover
The fulfillment of unspoken dreams
I never understood.
I held her hand and kissed its warmth
Before she went
Then when the moment passed
She lay like Juliet on the tomb
I kissed the cooling lips
And for a second, love
Garnered in pink orchids
Made us one again

Then was I rudely born
Into a foreign land
A lonely desert
Full of rocks and sand
And memories
Listening to the whispers
Of our love.