POEM: The Pact

The Pact
By Carrie Backe

They made a pact,

This great group of friends,

To stay together

Until the end.

If together they stayed,

The past they could keep.

All their fun times together,

The memories run deep.

They’d move to a complex

With a card room and gym.

They’d remind each other

Of the way things had been.

Now the dancing is over,

The traveling is done,

They walk and play cards

For just a little fun.

But one couldn’t stay,

He forgot his wife’s name,

And in the place he lived,

It couldn’t be the same.

One son left town,

And built a new place,

With rooms for his mom,

And plenty of space.

Two stayed in their home,

They’d been there so long,

To leave it all now,

Just seemed so wrong.

One went to hospice,

When the pain was too sharp.

The last thing she knew

Was the song of the harp.

Now there are four,

Old, funny fools.

They keep playing cards,

But they’ve forgotten the rules.