Cancerous

They told her not to cry-
as if tears were anything more than
a lifeless bit of memory-
and sent her away.
Eight years later,
the sun still rose and
her heart still beat to the same
empty song.
But when she woke, she would not
remember the love with which
her mother had sung words
that fell
in time to her breathing,
the melody her father would
whisper in a prayer long since
forgotten.
She would not see the colors of the
rising sun,
or the pain in her sister's eyes
as her boyfriend beat her
with the back of his hand.
She would not hear
the cries for help as
children
were shot in a school not unlike
the one she'd gone to.
She would not taste the
blood on her lips
as she fell asleep again that night,
or feel the cold of Death's shadow.
At last she would sleep,
quietly but not
peacefully.