For eighteen weeks I lay in bed
And fervidly wished I was dead
Until, one night my eyes grew wide
To see this vision at my side

Hi, I’m Owen. Who are you?
Elizabeth, she said. I’m new.
I just moved here a week ago.
The night shift’s all they had. And so…

We chatted briefly in the dark
And as she left, I felt the spark
Of something – something like the dawn;
Of a desire to still go on.

She only worked the weekends, so
I had to wait a week to know
That I would see her face again.
A face I thought somehow a friend.

She came there, just as in my head.
Upon the edge of that old bed,
She sat and looked me in the eyes.
And me? I was in paradise.

The minutes we spoke went so fast.
And then she told me, at the last
That she would not be back, because
She’d gotten day work somewhere else.

I doubt now she remembers me,
But I recall her freckles, eyes —
A love not quite an hour long
A life sustaining exercise