Too soon gone with too much time
Insanity rides the streets
Swallowing victims and pulling hope apart

They testified as if we were all
spectators to a grisly production:
"Foul play!"

And we're left holding the empty space
that you used to fill -
Stolen by the unknown

My own mortality
Mocks Me
no longer a thin gossamer thread
behind the curtain of the future...
It is putrid,
and suffocating to me

Foul play is too small
for what has happened
Because it wasn't just
one life
extinguished
but the hopes of countless others

I wish I could take back the clock
Give back to the world the jewel
that no longer shines
But the unfriendly, powerless grave
is relentless

And we will not forget...
We will not forget your smile
Your sarcasm
Your skill
Your beauty
Your perseverence
The light you brought into a room
Or the child you left behind

We will remember, and we will smile
Because death is not god;
And since you were ours
even for so short a time

You will live forever.

12/14/2006

Author's Note: For Asha Wiley, coworker and friend, brutally taken from the world. We will miss you, Asha. Go in peace.

Posted on 12/15/2006
Copyright © 2024 Jayme L Helmick