Oh be still my heart! Ladies...what a wonderful thread to wake up to!

Tena I knew of your talent but now you have company in our Sunnysidedown.

I have lately discovered Ellen Bass and am slowly devouring her book, "The Human Line". Here is one of her gems.

The End

All through the dark hours
she mumbled goodbye,
as though the word itself
could make it happen.

As if she were a novice witch
learning an old incantation,
Goodbye, she'd say
with fresh determination.

But night after night, the lungs
kept stealing air, the stubborn
muscle refused to give up.

Help me, she begged,
an ashy whisper. Please.
I stood in the cold spot in my heart
from where I could watch everything.
She was out beyond being a mother
and this my brief chance to know her.

In the morning, when the new
angel of morphine arrived
in its full brown bottle,
we funneled it into her throat.

My daughter helped me
and when the rattle began
she was closest. I leaned in behind,

It was like a birth that way -
The baby coming too fast
to change position-
and I thought, Okay,

She'll know how to do this.
And we kept at it together, both of us,
killing her as fast as we could.