Fade

She was slight to begin with.

Pared down by worry,

Three kids and an errant husband

Who carried grass seed in his pocket.

Illness took the rest

until pills were the only food

I could push through purse-string lips

before inertia set her blood like stone

There were moments

when a young girl fell back into life

like a failed ghost

with hot ‘how dare you’ eyes.

Then, the words ‘let me go’!

became my own

She dared cancer try its luck

and take anything from a body

that had nothing left.

Right on cue an evil limpet

clamped its self to her fifth rib

where an empty breast used to sit

Stupid tumour starved to death

just before she did

prised off by some thoughtful surgeon

during luncheon

popped into formalin and filed away

just before she was