Pain Poem by Gordon R Menzies

Old Woman you've had five children
pass from you to walk in the world
pain has never been far from you
it has lingered like an unwanted friend
the children arrived with impossible pain
and bought much more in their walking
you gathered your own as well, so
pain has been so constant a companion
it has had to remind you of its company
all true passages come with pain, but
now, this latest, is too hard to bear
because the end of it is so uncertain
and we are all helpless watching you
because this one is your own to bear
and ours, well it waits not far away
and we are yet still gathering, gathering
I wonder if in the bearing you see
what has come to be an evident pattern
to the eyes you have given me here
this pain is reminding you of travelling
it is telling you clearly, like birth pains
that something new is on its way