Poem: Dad’s Coma by Mark Tulin

Many thanks to The Loch Raven Review for first publishing this poem. Please visit their fine site. Featured image by Milton Tulin, edited by Mark Tulin.

Dad’s Coma
by Mark Tulin

My father is on his last breath,
a crowd of friends and family
huddle around,
watching him go down
death’s spiral,
unable to wake up
from a permanent dream

His lungs move in and out like
a wheezy accordion,
his lips pop with each expulsion
of breath

Once I thought,
he was invincible
Now watching him,
he could barely lift a finger

Time has changed
the most vibrant of our lives
My memory of my father,
soon to be an old photograph,
stuck in a family album,
deep in a closet of lost souls.