Diana Darby ** "I V" ** Intravenous

The Good Fight

There is not time to fight the good fight
for anyone else’s life
but your own.
In a moment
it can all pass
like a lightning bolt shooting across
the sky.
And then,
it is done.
Harmon
suffered a massive stroke this morning
and is being taken off life support.
On Sunday night
he was so alive
sitting at the dinner table
discussing life and death with the grace
he always possessed.
He didn’t know that two days later
he would be lying in a hospital bed
breathing his last breaths.
Each day I must begin asking myself
if I am spending my minutes on what matters.
Watching the market fall and rise
or my lover
run through mazes
are distractions.
It is far better to sit in the grass and watch the butterfly
drink from the daylilies
than worry.
All of this other stuff,
these other things,
are nothing to hold onto.
They are as pale and thin as dragonfly wings
blowing in the breeze.