I spill the bottles' contents on the table
and count my pills like rosary beads.
I arrange them into groups of mysteries,
of joy, sorrow and glory,
leaving large gaps in between for gloom and depression.
Some mysteries were indeed, decades. But others,
like the crucifixion of my marriage went on much longer.

The larger capsules are Pater Noster's, I decide.
the smaller ones, Ave Maria's.

Miserere Mei, God,
And if I get through this rosary
Dona Mei Requiem, dulcem pacem!