Her Long Illness by Donald Hall

Her Long Illness  by Donald Hall            Daybreak until nightfall, he sat by his wife at the hospital           while chemotherapy dripped through the catheter into her heart.           He drank coffee and read the Globe. He paced; he worked           on poems; he rubbed her back and read aloud. Overcome with dread,           they wept and affirmed their love for each other, witlessly,           over and over again. When it snowed one morning Jane gazed           at the darkness blurred with flakes. They pushed the IV pump           which she called Igor slowly past the nurses’ pods, as far           as the outside door so that she could smell the snowy air.