For those who travel the journey with a dying friend

[Guest guest]

I wrote this poem/lyricfor a personn I lived with as a

...caretaker..(we ended up taking care of each other..it was a very

interesting exchange..and to clarify, not a romantic one although we

lived together 8 yrs..he died of ALS)He was a vietnam vet.who also

suffered from severe PTSD.

I offer it here with love

LOVE NEVER DIES

I don't know why I thought

That you would never go

When we first met we made a pact I'd stay with you until the end

You held onto to life much longer

Than either of us ever did suspect

You said it was for me

And this is a fact i do believe

All those years you struggled deep inside

I struggled by your side

You struggled with your pride

And though it went so slowly I denied

Your will to live in increments died

From the pain in body and in mind

The first time your body tried to leave this world

I would not let you go

I struggled with your body so

I called your spirit back with raging screams

I beat the breath of life back into you

You were kind when you awoke

But you said you did not want me to

The next time

We struggled through another year

Perhaps a little more

In almost, not quite

A decade I did not miss

Stopping by your door

I never went to bed in all those years

Without saying good-night to you

Sometimes the phone would have to do

on rare occasion

And on that night you left

The shock just made me numb

I found you just exactly how I knew I would

I had checked to see if you were breathing in the middle of the night

for so many years

It's odd, I was sort of fussy with you as i watched you lay, finally

out of pain

Do you remember me asking

" Now you know what comes next and I still have to wait? "

I bet you laughed at me

And your spirit filled the house

You still are always with me

How could we have traveled down such a road like that

And not still be together now

So I love you when your " gone "

I know you tried to be

the best you could for me

I hope I did the same

The relationship was strange

It was filled with love and pain

And even though you had to go

I know you still remain

I feel your spirit here.