Prognosis of Hope

Strange, as a Christmas Eve
gathering place
but there they are,
grey-haired and frail,
elderly couples, hands
twisted in a unity of
care and devotion
awaiting word on
the welfare of their 
beloved pets, aged like
themselves, and in 
compromised health,
undergoing surgery
to prolong their lives
at this emergency
veterinary clinic, an
urgency of hope for survival
to retain the comfort
of restoring that
beloved creature to the
heart and hearth of a home
utterly bereft in grief
and abiding sorrow
without its presence.