Could I have pulled you back
From the edge if I had known
That’s where you were?

There is nothing special about
Me, so I need to learn that
I could not have managed what
Countless others who knew what was
Happening could not.

You did not need a superhero,
Even the one I thought I ought
To have been: you needed to
Go back in time and learn to
Love yourself, or something else
Less clichéd but similarly
Impossible.

It was not inevitable, no matter
How easy that is to assume,
But it was also not my
Responsibility to prevent.

Perhaps I, like everyone else who
Failed you, now carry a shard
Of your shattered soul buried
Somewhere under my skin, so
I occasionally feel some small twinge
Of the immense pain you bore.

Perhaps my real mission is to
Remember you, and to try and
Change the world so that
Another generation of angel friends
Do not turn into memories too soon.

09/18/2021

Posted on 09/19/2021
Copyright © 2024 Richard Vince