The day it won

Winner and part of the Forward anthology "A Day in Time"

My heart squeezed tight when I got that call
I'd not prepared myself at all
The journey seemed so painfully slow, 
Allowing fear to gradually grow
Then greeted by that clinic smell
A silent bell began to knell
My shock I could not keep inside
At how you'd changed, oh how I cried
You looked so gaunt, so pale, so thin
It angered me that it should win
The illness that you'd fought so hard 
About to have the final word
Yet still you smiled, your eyes awake
The sparkle that it could not take 
You held my hand and in my ear
A whisper, glad that I was here

Never can I forget that day
Your face so drawn, your skin so grey

Never will I forget your face
Changed, another in your place
I hope, I yearn, I wish, one day
That memory will fade away
And every time I think of you
The happy times come breaking through.