a prayer

Hours drag yet they're a blur.  The lights are harsh and the noise is constant.  I try to breathe in unison with the ventilator but my husband's breaths are many and rapid.  I need many and slow.

At home in our bed together, I often watch his slumber in the quiet and the pale light, of dawn.  I've never told him I watch him breathe.

He doesn't know I'm watching him now, from a bed we cannot share.  Dear God, let him breathe on his own again!  Please, let me take him home for many more morns.