Time stretched as she faded;

Lengthened, folded in on time

Extended, never ended.

 

Eternity must have seemed

An earthly hell

Peopled intermittently by friends:

A nightmare dream of pain and daemons

 

What superhuman will

Kept her through those summer months

What need, desire or wish

Held death's sad end at bay?

 

In the end, fading faded

Light left, sylph shaded,

That faintest whisper'd breath sighed out

As we all knew it must.

 

‘Gainst our hopeless hopes

She saw a means to give us strength:

Fortitude, courage, power -

But death rewards us all with death.