"Immortality" - for Aileen

My sister now lies dying
and I still smoke my cigarettes
Everyone's immortal
until it's time for it to end.

There isn't any rage
as she only lies there sleeping
There is no melodrama
as the smoke wafts through the room.

What is it you should feel
when you've never felt this before
You really cannot be here
but you can't walk out the door.

What is it she is hearing
 as she lies there softly waiting
for a time that now must come
when time means nothing more.

The passage should be easy,
it always is for those who go.
But what is it we have learned here
and what more do we really know.

The others stand there talking
to remember things they've done
Little things don't matter now,
only a time when all were one.

Out here I feel her silence,
these millions of miles away,
as she waits for her sister
who has one more thing to say.

Good-bye, dear one.  I love you.
We'll not come back here again.
Someday the sun will shine once more
and I will see you then.