I first wrote this poem years ago, but it returned to me after learning of the recent death of a young Ukrainian woman following a car accident. She was very close to her mother, who rushed to her side in hospital. I post it now in their memory, and in honour of that bond.
NO MORE AS ONE
Mother:
I look into your shuttered eyes,
I touch you gently, but there you lie.
I want to say you’ve not yet gone;
But soon you’ll breathe no more as one.
Daughter:
I speak to you, but you cannot hear:
A wind is blowing in my ears.
The songs you sing are all but gone,
I listen now, no more as one.
Mother:
You whisper with a troubled sigh,
I smile at you but no smile replies.
You try to fight the pain along,
But you fight no longer, now, as one.
Daughter:
I call to you but you hear no sound,
My fading words are all but drowned.
I feel your thoughts which blindly run,
Across my heart, no more as one.
Mother and daughter:
The sun sinks down, our words can’t say:
Those precious times have slipped away.
For us, the dawn will never come;
We live no longer, now, as one.
………………………………………
Image created with AI tools to reflect the poem’s mood.
Wendy Skorupski 