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Sitting with a blanket laid over her lap,
she was gaunt. Eyes sunken. Pale.
Weight that couldn’t be spared, slipping
from her. A flightless, trembling bird,
stuck in a shrinking nest. She talked
of new anti-depressants, daily routines,
rituals prescribed. Cried
for her boys, her life, her husband –
all that couldn’t be predicted when he
knelt on one knee, sliding on the ring.
Beyond the door, the sound of him
preparing lunch. She whispers a gut
wrenching plea, if only it was
cancer instead, life would be desired.
In spite of it, she survives
another hour, and another. Pressed by
the loneliness of an endless night,
a desperate song of hope still yearns
for daybreak.
My name is Melissa Elder, a poet from New Jersey. When I’m not reading or writing poetry, I’m trying to capture it through a lens. I have two collections of published poetry, The Mundane and Nostalgia. My third book, In the Quiet, will be released in the Fall of 2026.