you want the best for them

and sometimes
even they do too
other times it’s just
bandaid after bandaid—
they don’t want what’s best at all,
just anything to stop
pressure from holes they’ve punched
take on water
watch Winter dissolve
Spring/Summer/Autumn
then nothing
see them stand again
and then
bedridden before death
 
in time,
questions approach like:
was it really worth all of it
and could I have made it easier
watching life wane to become nothing