next to you

that mouth so taut
and skin so white
as if in sickness
you had been caught by
some deathly fright
your hair so slack,
it clung to your face
all along your back
in strands of sickening waste

as you rot,
i thought
of what we once had,
of days gone by,
of  both good times and bad
this is no way for you
to end
as if by fantasy
your life was all in
pretend
the smiles you once kept for me
and the laughter i received
you were once so careless and free
and all of that is now deceased
so i keep you here
for me and me alone
to somehow atone
for the hatred
that had grown
up from my heart
when you tried to run away
after i begged you to stay
i'll keep you now
forever and always
as you slowly decay