The Last Year

(after being diagnosed with terminal cancer)

This is the last year.
There will be no other,
but heartless nature
seemingly relents.
Never has a winter sun
spilled so much light,
never have so many flowers
dared such early bloom.
The air is brilliant, sharp.
Never have I taken
such long, long breaths.

~ Robert Friend ~

(From Dancing With A Tiger: Poems 1941-1998 by Robert Friend, copyright by Jean Shapiro Cantu; used by permisson)