Silence surrounds
As her soul weeps in fear.
Lost to despair as she stares at the ground;
Fresh earth entombing one she held dear.
As twilight fades and darkness comes
The nighttime symphony softly sings
And solitude enshrouds her– her heartbeat thrums.
Such a forsaken figure pondering the end of hope death brings.
So Quiet.
So Distant.
Forever seems such a very long time
To be
so
very
alone.
No
No, no, no no.
Oh God.
Shattering, crashing, rolling.
Dead…
Gone and gone and oh, God she is gone.
A friendship dies in a tangle of
Crushed and twisted metal in the dark.
Oh, how I hope you were not afraid, and
Yet, I know you were.
Alone and afraid and me so far away.
I dropped the phone when they told me.
I dropped to the ground and cried;
Tears falling, sobs wracking and
My mother’s heart breaking on the other end of the line.
So much time has passed.
Still the pain can slam into me
At the most unexpected time.
At my Wedding, I word a ring we picked out as children.
It was blue.
When my son was born, I introduced him to your parents
And for a moment you were there too, and we didn’t cry.
Well, not too much, anyway.
He will know you, if only through stories and pictures.
You are not forgotten.
30 November, 2016
Poet’s Notes: My childhood best friend and a dear friend well into adulthood was killed in a car accident at night on her Birthday in 2011. I do not traditionally write when I am in pain, so I wrote nothing at the time. However, the past couple of weeks, as I have been putting my first poetry book together, I have run across so many poems written about our friendship and upon reflection of her passing. It pulled a string of memories forward and this is the best way I know to describe the complicated emotions I have of a friendship that was cut too short by death.
In the face of extreme disappointment it is easy to give up, disown, turn away. In the wake of our nations turmoil, many of us are disillusioned, horrified, scared for our people, loved ones, even strangers on the street. Understand, though, that if you give up, “they” win. If you renounce your Americanism, then the only visible Americans are the people who you are ashamed of.
To be a true American is to have the courage to strive to rise above adversity and show the world what we SHOULD be. You have to fight every day to make this country what it needs to be. Being a citizen of the United States of America is a job and a hard one at that. It takes an intense passion, incredible amounts of hope and the faith that as we move forward and evolve we WILL see change. There will be true equality. There will be true freedom of religion. Freedom to choose who we want to be and all that it can entail, who we love, who are to the very core of our being.
