The following poem was published in the on-line journal Hospital Drive on Dec 20, 2013

The Breath
by Jennifer L. Freed 

He knows his wife is gone
not by the altered sounds
of the machines
meant to drip and breathe and ease
the life back into her,

but by the loosening of the nurse’s
shoulders,
the small step back,
the breath
in that moment before
her eyes meet his.