You were a child of the earth like my daughter who gleefully instructs me on the way to build paper planes

You were my first love and through you I learned to respect the planet, the universe and all its wonderment

You laughed with wry knowing that peacefulness was always available – a gift of the universe

You smiled in your garden as you lovingly whispered the tips of your fingers underside a flower’s petal

You were angered when your father kept behaving as he had done for your whole life and felt shame that I witnessed it

You stood up for yourself and all those that were trodden on, left to battle through the mix of life

You sat under a tree with cows grazing behind you and I took the black and white that remains burned in my memory

You cried when I left you yet still had the grace and the courage to understand and remain my friend

You met another whom you loved and planned to marry; then his heart stopped and you cried again

You were feeling sick and you rang me saying it was serious – could I come visit you and be there for support

You tried to hang on to life but were bewildered by the excess of greedy people who claimed they could save you

You let go, became terminal and started to do all the things you wanted to do. You paid me one last visit

You rang occasionally and read me poems which lit my world as I prepared myself to say goodbye

You went to the river; you’d had enough, and as you went to leave you felt little fingers and heard a voice saying; wait, not yet

You said; it’s time now and asked to see me once more. Through the miracle of grace I found a way to make the long trip

You smiled when you saw me even though your body had left you a skeleton wrapped tightly in skin

You listened to me read and sounded soft sighs as the stories touched the heart and the mind that was still alive

Your sister woke me at 2AM and you were gone. I cried a fountain for hours and my grief was released

I spoke at your funeral and my words mirrored the words I was later to discover you had left me – they asked me to never lose my innocence

You were still there when some years later, I sat on your grave and cried that fountain again

You are still here in my heart now, still here in my mind though I don’t hold you too tightly

Thank you for being in my life