Stormy sky over the island of Samson, Isles of Scilly

WRITTEN IN JUNE 2018

Marking forty years of marriage, anniversary roses sway in the breeze
As raindrops drip down the window pane
Diverging and dropping like divine pleas
Of entreaty that the illness will wane

And disappear, enabling life to win
As Barber’s Adagio for Strings haunts
Whilst hope and once-muscly legs become thin
Made weak with steroids by a sickness that taunts,

Rendering the world through the glass out of reach
And mocking simple goals long planned,
Now toxically made into a breach
— A reduced list of remaining dreams, written with a shaky hand:

To taste fresh lobster just one more time;
Feel the breeze blowing during a sail;
Enjoy barbecued meat with fragrant wine,
And a bracing walk before the body becomes too frail.

The melody of the violins intensifies
Gently, slowly, lilting, soothing,
Giving strength to bear what this courage belies,
All optimistic statistics disproving.

The notes rise and fall like waves of hope and despair
With beauty, in an ebb and flow
Stoking emotions of speculation with flair.
Will he survive? It’s impossible to know.

Roses, rain, sadness, fear. Memories of when joy was abundant.
An indisputable truth, whether this battle is lost or won
Is that, even when health is made redundant,
Forty years of love cannot be undone.