Fighting the smothering in your chest,
Breath whistles rapidly through pursed lips
Sucking cool air from the open window.
Watching the moon move across the darkness.
You count each minute with gasping insomnia.
Early light in the east heralds nights end.
Dawn sees decay draw closer.
The will to live still drives your broken body.
Another night survived.
Time is precious, words scarce,
Much unsaid, each exchange, the last?
Unspoken love comforts you,
Dabbing sweat from your cold brow,
Rubbing your back, caressing your hands.
Dreading your loss, hating your suffering.
Exhausted, mortality beckons.
Soon you will wish to be released.
Cigarettes have cost so much,
Now the last payment is being extracted.
Jim Lenfesty is a retired doctor. He has done several courses on poetry in the Crescent Arts Centre and Queens University Belfast. He regularly reads his work at Purely Poetry, Invited to the Mic, and Stanza and Deliver, and was part of the 12 Poets video project, and One Minute Poems.