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He hears the nurse’s footsteps coming down the corridor;

He looks out his tiny bedroom window like so many times before,

He sees the green fields where he once played,

And it was there where his heart had stayed.

He wished he could get outside and towards the clouds he would fly,

But instead, he sat there unaware of how his life had passed him by,

He lies alone with his thoughts each day,

Thinking of his friends and family now passed away.

His bed his only friend now the hospital his home,

As the nurses try to comfort him

As he moans his lonely moan.

He thinks of when he was young,

And all the friends he had as a boy,

And he looks back on his long life,

With a slight sense of joy.

He thinks of his wife and son,

and the space they left in his heart,

His son was now a man,

And time had brought them apart.

And as he thought the door swung open

And he turned his head to see,

And to his surprise he saw his son

With a tear rolling down his cheek.

The son looks at his father;

Can barely see the man he knew,

The man who always stuck by him,

No matter what he would do.

All those years he had loved,

Ruined by the minutes they had fought,

And his son hugged his father;

And again, they were united.

The old man died that very night

With a smile upon his face,

His son now stood beside his bed

His life was no longer a disgrace.

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Written by Brian Conlon

Published here 20 Mar 2023 and originally published Easter 1998

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