Gone

Ave Maria, gratia plena;

Another good friend died, just shrank away
From cancer, like all the others.

Still making little jokes last week,
Now she has stopped breathing.

Dominus tecum:

Mary wasn’t the most tragic case,
Nor one who passed quickly, easily.

She had cancer for so long,
We forgot how sick she was.

Benedicta tu in mulieribus

She had health care with a big HMO,
Advertising smiles of health for years.

We get ‘em better and you enjoy ‘em longer.
Insure with us, live longer with us.

Et benedictus fructus ventris tui [Jesus].

Health Maintenance Organization with slogan,
Empty and hollow sounding like an oil drum.

Best put yourself in hospice care,
That’s what we recommended.

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,

We do all that can be done.
We count this as a success story.

She made it through the treatments,
We did our part well.

Ora pro nobis peccatoribus,

HMO said more people are surviving
The big C, the dread C.

Is anyone alive today who
Hasn’t had a victim relative?

Great Aunt Nora, three grandparents,
Great Uncle, who else?

Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.