Endurance
I methodically folded my life
into sparse seconds,
scattered along the few days remaining
Refusing to get skinny,
yet altering myself beneath
the pulsed bruise of life;
a cold clarity
crusted what was left
of this great aloneness.
My life wound down,
unspooling as I breathed —
less life left with each breath.
Yet the juice of viability
lingers past the point
of vivacity, past vitality
unto the end of the end,
when this world finally
gives up its hold on me
and I become fathomless
infinite immeasurable
joining the very universe
by Annette Gagliardi
Published in Proper Poems for Ladies . . . and a few naughty ones, too. We Sisters LLC, 2019.