A long life is winding down
Facilitated by secretions in which he drowns
Making intermittent gurgling sounds
Cast off the technology which painfully surrounds
Death by intensive care a form of torture
Prolonging the inevitable demanding the body
Endure for only a few more hours or days
The costs-benefits we try to compute
What is it we gain?
An indeterminate life of total
Dependency without the ability to
Communicate
And if he survives a nursing home is his fate
Isolated and deprived of loving care
As the burden of caring for his wounded
Body is enormous and beyond reach..