Last Visit

Last Visit

Bus ride to an uncertain future
I disembark onto shifting realities
My shoes walk me into the past
Arrival at the apartment of her last dreams
Workers clean the space
Where she lived and breathed
But emptiness meets me at the doorway
With her closing gasps at the ICU
My final chance for one more visit
Leaves me with pangs of guilt
For a tardiness unfixable
The cleaning lady tells me
How I was the constant topic
Of her conversation
And she hung onto the dream thread
Of me moving in as her neighbor
She implored the landlord to let me in early
But time ran out
And my heart broke
While the hands which prepared food for life
Fought resuscitation with all her might