Vigil

Mind full of memory drawn out by your breathing’
Future stilled by the rasp of your breath.
Time unheeded –
slowly measured in tick of drip pump’s constant millilitre refrain.
Counting, re-counting
Five red lights absorbing each moment,
Each thousand a triumph over time.
Lost – mute – In the watching,
Numb in sleeplessness, as you cast heedless by your fever ocean,
Slip softly away.
Silent – I will you to seek safe harbour,
Urge you wordlessly to make land fall.
Beyond clinical machine hum and click.
I wait for you at your bedside,
Unsure you will know me – to make time live again.