IT SEEMS DEATH HAS BETTER PLANS

Not everything turned out the way I thought.

Writing no longer heals,
love no longer keeps me warm,
not even a pouch of tobacco
smells the way it used to.

Only pain is faithful,
and sorrow — she always knows where I live.

I had planned to leave quietly,
somewhere between two poems,
to be found with a smile
and a blank sheet of paper beside my head.

But it seems death has better plans.

She avoids me
like a mother avoids a torn fetus after a miscarriage,
like an old love on the street,
like a father who never came back.

Perhaps she is saving me for something worse —
a nursing home,
a corridor without windows,
or that room where you no longer know your own name
and everyone calls you “dear.”

Sometimes I think she loves me.
She plays.

From time to time she rewards me
with a migraine,
with disappointment,
or with a friend who disappears
when all that is needed is silence.

I live, but not because I want to.
I live because death is late,
because her train never arrives,
or perhaps she simply —
changed her mind.

You know how it is —
illness, whores, and death.
All of them,
when they promise to come,
always seem to have better plans.





Poetry by Maria Deyana
Read 11 times
Written on 2026-06-15 at 21:08

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Griffonner The PoetBay support member heart!
It is a powerful poem, no doubt! Your protagonist should know that there is no point in trying to preempt or predict that lady. She's as fickle as they come - as is her train! All any of us know is that we are on the departure platform from the very moment we are born. Blessings, Allen
2026-06-15