Hit

Hit. Like you were as I hear the news.
A blow to the brain
Leaves me still, in sympathy with your state.
Numb, I don’t want to move as I’ll feel the pain
The same as you down on the road.
My mind wanders through memories, flashes of your smile,
My spine shakes me back to time, whilst yours took you away.
Face wet. Colours faded.

Lying on grey tarmac your life lost its way,
One wobble, a split second, a moment changed.
You rolled across the white centre line, dividing your past and your future frozen.
Where you would have got to, we will never know.

Images gravely, yet I still see you smiling,
Haunting my mind whilst yours lies empty,
Did the same memories flash through your mind down on that road?
flatter without your laugh, those songs, those stories.
Once we stood on the peaks in the wind and looked out at the world
– we didn’t know it wasn’t for you.
I hadn’t known to say goodbye
to let you know I thought of you, my friend.
Did you have enough time to realise you were loved?

I hold no inhibitions in this room of strangers,
All victims of tragedy bought close in your name.
With so much of you to share.
I wonder, What right have I to grieve?
Just a friend, who wasn’t friend enough,
yet they are father, mother, lover.
Together. Trying hard to believe, what our hearts feel and eyes see.
Singing hymns louder than ever before. Led by your example,
sensing your silent smile on us.

Journey home through glazed eyes, watching the world pass on.
Because for me it didn’t stop.
Here the road splits for all of us whom you united,
and you will forever lie still on the other side of the carriageway.
Time ticks by, already past.
I look at the yellow rose you left me, which in time will grow and smile
A parting sentiment of wisdom to remind me of the friend I ought to be.
You’re a statue in my mind, your optimism smiles through the bright yellow rose.
…as I right these words I remember your love of poetry.