I saw her, 
          picking 
at her finger nail,
                   until it bled.
She failed to cover up the crying,
    and smears her black coal
        eyeliner across the back of her hand,
and a second tear hurries down her cheek
    to mingle with the moisture
        at the corner of her mouth,
            causing her to automatically
flick out her tongue to taste the salt.

I peep a little more keenly
     at her silent weeping,
     and when she paws at the glass,
          her straggling breath clouds over
               the complexity of lines, leads and
                    connecting tubes beyond,
                         and I monitor the irritation
                              of monotonous bleeping, machines
                                   counting each breath, each beat,
                                   each bar, each rhythm,
                                   away into the night.

I pry into her crying -
    a voyeur of tears -
        and I can't help noticing
        the shadows growing
    under my eyes,
Like my time is up as well.

Charles Messier, French astronomer, died today in 1817.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States, died today in 1945.