For Milo

By Millie Dok

Thursday, July 28, 2022.

Tonight

Tonight a friend of mine will die

No, not the physical dead mortis death

That will come much later

When the disease has hogged her bones dry.

Tonight

Tonight, she will mourn the distance of her former friends 

The busy ones

The terrified ones

The ones who say they will see her and never do 

The ones who just never got around to it

The ones who are quietly terrified the cancer will somehow spread to them

And those who cannot afford to be asked for help and money, again.

Tonight

She will think of these people 

And her little boy's future 

And die

Millie Dok is a writer and poet based in London, England.