How do you tell a mother

Her son is dead?

How do you tell a lover

Their love is dying?

How do you tell a child

Their mother is passing?

How do you tell someone

They won’t make it?

How do you tell someone

Their heart will stop.

Their lungs will stop

Their kidneys will stop

Their brain will stop

Their life will stop.

You wait.

You wait until they see it in your eyes

Your hanging lips

Your fidgeting hands

Your furrowed brow

Your broken heart.

You let them understand

Before you say anything.

You let them come to the conclusion

So they are not left in confusion

Before you say the words

Nobody wants to hear

Because you don’t want to see

A mother sob

A lover fall

A child break

A world dissolve.

You don’t want to see it.

You don’t want to see any of it.

So you wait.