To a Friend

To
My Friend.
Such numbing
news is all my grief.
For at the height of that
God given day, grim death,
yon callous thief, broke in my
heart and stole your life away. All
my thoughts are disbelief. So short
ago I felt you pulse within my hands;
saw passion flaring in your flashing eye.
I rave and rage against disease and rant
at all who failed to save the focal point of
all you meant. And what of me, who reassured
you to the end? Your really very fickle friend, who
shied away from stretching hand and frightened
child you hid within. Emotions well and choke
remorseful in my throat as
bitter
tears
come
scald
my eye.
Your ashes now enrich the ground; your soul, in smoke, floats heaven-bound;
but still you pulse in this – my heart. A part of me it was that died.