The Waiting Poem by Joe Hughes

(To Peter Hughes R.I.P)

You lie peacefully now
Released from your festooning medical tubes
As weblike wires watched your every move,
Communicating your precarious dance with life
To the all-seeing monitors overhead.
Pallored then, your bearded bristles bloomed
On listless skin.
Highly skilled intensive care nurses
Worked superhumanly for you
But you never knew the detail.
Each nanosecond of care
Drained them in their readiness,
At shift's end,
For their all-encompassing sleep.
We passed each painful day
Going through life's motions.
Your steady progress
Fed Aidan's gentle, tearful smile
As we awaited your corner-turning moment
Which eventually arrived
But it was the wrong corner!
Yours has been a Rocky Road
But not to Dublin
Nonetheless to Inishfree
Where Fergal continues the journey.
The final Bullet was in God's hands
When it was thrown at your heart.
You loved your journey,
Making many stops along the way
With Bacchus, Apollo, Fortuna,
Yes, even Terpsichore.
We touched you, kissed you,
Told you of our love for you.
Recited a perfect act of contrition in your ear.
Got the priest for you
Before you breathed your last.
Eventually, the other priest conformed.
Now you sit happily at a Station
Where the Bar is permanently full
With the Ciorcal, the pipers, the rhymers, the imbibers.
Their musical alter egos
All playing, smiling in glorious harmony.
You have indeed Roved Out
To your final, happy spiritual home!