Old Man On The Bed

Old man on the bed Where do you go When the lights are dark And the nurse calls out Through the door? You cannot hold your orange juice And the peas run down your chin You seem to look right through the walls Past the TV spewing noise You cannot hear the endless drone Of a ringing telephone. The tubes shoot venom into your heart Hanging bottled masks to hide your head White sheeting shroud to cover your loins There is breath from your lips But life is long spent No wonder. I wish I were there with you Wherever you go Old man on the bed When the lights are dark... In some dreaming place There are fields of green Soft meadows and grassy hills And there you are walking With a boy's careless smile Your hat in your hand Your face to the sky Stopping to smell the flowers That grow by the way.