Your last Hello blew rancid across my face

As I pretended not to notice the smell

Your noxious lies tripped auditory alarms

As I closed my mind to the sound

Your clothing barely covered a bloating torso

Pale flesh withered beneath shrouded disguise

Cyanotic fingers caressed dull tresses

Eyes like putrid pools stared lifeless

Desperate to resuscitate one spark of recognition

All that you were, all you could have been

All that we'd shared, dreamed, dared...

Those vital signs of life absent as your soul

I pounded your heart with fervid fists

Your pernicious resistence my preclusion

Saving your life was my own delusion

...But you were too long dead.