Hospital Conversation

Two nurses sat in the commissary next to my table.

"I wish you could have been there. It was such a tender and sad moment," said the taller nurse with shiny gray hair pulled back in a bun.

"Is this the patient we lost on the fourth floor?", the younger nurse said softly.

"Yes. So young. She should have lived at least to my age or beyond. But, her lover's grief was beautiful. She was loved."

That was all I heard, but I imagined what the older nurse must have seen and what the young lady's lover must have felt. I asked him to speak to me as I sat there under the florescent hospital lights.

He said,

How can something so beautiful
end so completely?
How can a human so perfectly
balanced in function and grandeur
fail and cease to be?

The lips that kissed parents
and lovers
while forming words of affection
for so many are still.
The tongue that tasted
the saltiness of my love
lies still behind her parted lips.
The breasts I cupped and kissed
are growing cold like the hand I hold.

A tall nurse looks on with kind eyes
as I bow to bury my face
in my lover’s breasts,
hiding my tears.