Rewrite: For All Those Living

Gliding through those gates and under the ancient arches, 
Lying on those bleached beds, amidst those gown'd in green;
Searching through the haze and returning
To look through windows I missed,
Helplessly slipping down a tightening shaft of light.

Reliving the shades of life before, "Oh, the pain",
Like a ghost floating over the past:

Walking in the glare of the city's lights,
Dazed by the towering skyscrapers-
Never tasting the snow, I tried to forget
The tumour and the blood-soaked papers.

As clinical odours seep through,
My mind's eye roves through memories to numb
The thrashing and twisting within.
I struggle to stay with the pain,
While a voice whispers, "Ironic that you'd want
To live this through when death itself
Is free from feeling".

Come hours, maybe days later, one of my blood:
A friend, a brother, one who'd die for me.
My voice, hoarse as it was in beseeching
Didn't have the strength to say it, as
His eyes glistened and his speech faltered.

Eyes refuse to watch another in despair,
Hearts refuse to accept death
That has no holding back.
I had hands that didn't feel the need to
Feed a dying body with a despairing soul.

A stare met a gaze; searching, begging -
For a release from the tumour, trial, and torment.
Those bells that tolled from a nearby town
Now approach, as sure as the sun's evening decline.

Just the throw of a switch - an act the age made
Easy for those wishing to take leave.

"I looked to him to commit,
He looked away with shame."

--

"His fingers completed the circuit,
He left with lips whispering my name."

*