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Cadaver's Quick Demise — by Salman Bhai
Feel the right lung
Spongy in the apex, rigid in the inferior lobe-pneumonia
That rattle, with each breath
echoes in my ears: old age
Appearance
Congested dark purple settling blood
There must have been areas with dark patches:
worked and lived in a city
The heart, incision perpendicular to posterior interventricular sulcus to atrioventricular sulcus
Calcified coronary arteries, enlarged left ventricular muscle-myocardial infarction
Our walks together became shorter, quieter
Likely a quick death, immobile in last days, the instructor trailed, leaving the heart
He signaled to us, though He was a fighter
Slowly, with each daily cycle, He slowed
Searching for more air
To hold our hands while He lay
In our house, His bed.
Gargling call, answer with morphine, hospice explained
it’s not as painful as it sounds, He couldn’t explain with words,
only with a faint touch to His chest:
His heart stays
In my hands, I hold it
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