In A Hospital Bed

In a hospital bed he lies
with crinkled sheets to sheild him from the cold.
Glassy are his grey blue eyes,
as he begins to hold,
on to his own wrinkled hand;
for there is too much pride
within this aged man.
Doctors poke and prod
at every body part.
While he just barely commits to a nod,
as they ask questions about his heart...
His lungs.
His inside
and his out.
Then the doctor turns and decides to ask,
"So what is this visit about?"
An elderly man,
eighty to be exact...
sighs and says,
"At my age you leave nothing unattended like that...
like the paining
or the bleeding.
At my age all you fear,
is that death will be heeding,
calling abruptly at your door..."
The doctor says he understands,
as he scribbles down every word.
Than touches the old man...
and repeats all the symptoms he heard.
In a weather beaten tone,
a whisper of gravel in the throat
the patient wishes to be home,
as he prays with silent hope...
'Do not let me die.
No one wishes to.
Dear, God, not yet,
do not take me to you.'
He closes his eyes
to calm them from their storm,
and as he dies in this hospital bed,
in another a baby is being born.