When The End

How many nights I stayed awake—
keeping you there before my eyes,
how many tears I mixed in, 
how I writhed in so much pain.

How many dawns— 
covering you in white sheets, I steadied my mind in prayer,
to deliver so much feeling— 
I touched you,
how many times I tried to make it clear—
that I love you,
how many times, pretending to keep touching you— 
I closed my eyes in love,
to bring you into feeling, how many times— 
I burned my body with fever.

That same you came...
when you heard the news of my death.