This is a tribute to a good friend who i lost to cancer a few years back..i want you to know, you werent just my Grandma..you were an inspiration too.

Cold In The Earth

Helpless, dying in the tear stained bed, your face pale as fresh fallen snow,
Crimson long faded from those blushing cheeks, lily white, slowly peeling to grey,
The woman i once used to know, now fails to recognise the face within, her own flesh and blood,
As she painfully recalls times long passed by, preparing to return to the deepest of mud.

Lips parted, its pains her to breathe now, i see the tubes hanging limp from her arms,
Pumping vital liquids in orbit around a heart torn apart, she yearns to show me her final love,
A gold array of shining charms, presented to me at the bedside, she tugs at her mask, my shaking hand safe in her grasp,
As she struggles to confer she''ll be watching from above.

She turns her head to the pillow, as she lays down to sleep, bidding me pray to the Lord,
Her good soul to keep, her memories shrouded in inflictions of pain, false smiles,
I always felt like her special child, stories of war, how she was born in the dirt,
No one to care for her as a baby, grew up in a world of hate, no peace to ever avert,
Her eyes never saw anything excepting hurt, she was raised by her brother and gave birth to my mother,
A single parent living on welfare, a pitious amount of coins in her pocket, yet she pulled it together to care for another,
Never cried, never broke down in tears, never felt sorry for herself, but she always looked to the future, always remained there to help,
When i was feeling down she picked me up and forever showed me the boundries of her eternal love,

So heres to my Grandma, you'll forever be missed,
86 years of hurt, yet you provided me 14 of bliss.