Joan

Through twenty long years
of widowhood Joan’s life
spread out around her sons,
their wives and children,
neighbours, fellow senior
citizens in their gatherings.

Her brothers and sisters as
time went on all passed
away, were duly interred.

Yet the funerals continued
to Joan’s stunned shock
as her sons succumbed
to their father’s faulty heart
genes. They too passed away.

Her numb despair defeated
her grandchildren’s best efforts.
They could not lift her out
of her weighty misery.

Left behind by her husband
and children she withdrew
inside herself she withdrew
inside herself, speaking little,
…. her heartbeat faded away.

Previously posted May 2017