Ode to Life Support

Plastic tubes, now removed, once allowed gasps of breath
Hum of motor gives motion to air no more
Nasal tubes enabling sanctity of life in a clear coil
Hearing's the last sense to go.

Say goodbye, said the hospice nurse
I sang a song she sang me to sleep as a child
Her skin was cold on my fingers'
Last contact

Afterward, joking with my then-boyfriend
On the phone about the scene from 2010:
Hal singing, “Daisy, daisy.”
“Stop, Dave.”