Serenity savaged by almost unbearable loss,
heartbeat echoing the ache of dismay,
thumping in time to fierce sorrow
in the browned garden where normal was tossed.
Time is measured in tears while not sleeping.
Attempted distractions fail to divert burning traces
from washing down your face,
dismay the only company you are keeping.
What will you do without those simple sweet smiles?
Where else can you find honesty so sincere?
As reliable a shoulder to cry on
after hundreds of journeys and thousands of miles?
if you believe in patience, the sorrow will fade,
but this wound seems immune to such healing.
Patience seems to pale to worthless as solace,
with endurance the only currency left to trade.
Left to play back recollections again and again,
to reconcile grief with treasured memories
bringing just momentary relief from the gasping,
only small moments of mitigation of such pain.
So, goodbye to the handshake always so surely grasped,
certainty that when called, you would come, day or night
I must add you so sadly to the already too long list
of dear treasured friends who have passed.