Farewell

“Look thy last on all things lovely,/ Every hour.” ~ Walter de la Mare,

“Fare Well”

She turns and looks for one last time upon

The neighborhood she leaves.  The asphalt where

The ambulance is waiting isn’t dawn.

She  turns to see the roses where they blare

In beauty just in front of where she lives.

They bloom beside the bushes of the pink

Of blossoms, peonies, now gone, forgives

Them all their beauties and their deaths.  The link

Between them all and her becomes too clear

As wheels begin to turn to take her to

The hospice.  Margaret turns away from fear,

One rosebush named as Rhapsody in Blue.

  At last she sings her rhapsody to earth.

    She praises all the smaller things of worth.

~ Phillip Whidden