Death, Pain, and LOVE

When we were 18,

I told you I wanted to die first.

I didn’t want to endure the heart-wrenching pain

my mom walked through each and every day

at the loss of her dear love of over 25 years.

In your youth, you gave the innocent promise to out live me.

When we were 24,

walking across the wedding threshold

I reminded you of your promise-

that I would die first.

Again, you simply smiled and said our love would out live us both.

When I was 34,

and my sister lost her valiant fight against cancer,

I learned

I didn’t want to think about who would die first,

I wanted to live each day fully with you,

So off on a hot air balloon bucket list ride we flew.

When I turned 50,

my heart was so full

due to your wise words at 18

“don’t let the pain, stop you from feeling the joy of my love”

I want you to leave this world first

so you never have to experience that heart-wrenching pain.

You have filled my life with abundant love and joy

so I want you to leave the world feeling only that – my love.

#VerseLove Day 7 Death in a Poem

The prompt today was simply to explore death in a poem. You could use any form you liked. I chose free verse. I lost my dad, mom and sister by the time I was 39 and there was one person who walked through each of these death visits with me- my husband. So in thinking about death- I wrote about how the thoughts of it have changed over my lifetime in regards to my love.