not all fairytales have happy endings

I once met a man

who told me about his wife.

Just two years married,

they learned

she was closer to death

than to life.

You'll beat this thing!

We'll beat this thing!

a reality in which,

at first,

they both believed.

But the cancer grew worse

and before long,

the truth became clear:

love can't conquer all,

for death cannot be deceived.

In the blink of an eye,

she was gone,

just like that.

And here was this man,

years later,

still trying to heal

and find his will

to move on.

Then the man told me

he was recently woken

by a loud noise in the night.

Half-asleep

and in a daze,

he rolled over to ask his wife

if she was alright…

only to remember that

it was the cancer,

not she,

that had won the final fight.

- not all fairytales have happy endings