Another legend has gone away

Too soon, too fast for us to notice

His pain before that moment

When he chose his life to end

Leaving us to mourn with endless

Sorrow his radiance,

His brilliance,

And now he is gone, but not

Forgotten, for his gifts to us

Remain and his talent will

Forever more be remembered,

For that is all we could ever wish,

The creative among us,

That our words, our thoughts,

Our minds consumed with

Music or verse or endless chatter,

We compose and recite and write or

Act, with the hope of leaving

A lasting impression,

But to die before our natural time

Causes those left behind to wonder

With sadness and confusion

What might have been done

To help a man so loved,

So esteemed,

So extraordinary,

From leaving us far too soon,

And so I sit here with my shadows

and thoughts remembering a man

Who once brought me laughter

And sunshine and smiles and made

This often too-dark world a happier place

And I think, Yes, that is his lasting

Impression, his legacy,

For though he left us too soon,

His truly was a life well lived, and

So to you, Mr. Williams, I say, thank you,

For teaching us expressions like, “Carpe Diem,”

“O Captain, My Captain.”

I found you again today

What’s it been, thirty years?

You still look great, same great

Smile, same clear blue eyes,

You haven’t aged at all,

You were with your family

Just like I left you, lying

There, inside that wooden box,

The big one in the basement,

I was cleaning up a bit, good

Thing to do every thirty

Years or so, has it been that

Long? Seems like just yesterday

When I said goodbye, surrounding

You with mothballs, you were

Wearing your favorite shirt, blue

Like your eyes, your wife so lovely

And perfect in her dress, and

The twins, what were their names?

No matter, we had fun, all those

Summer days and nights, there

On the floor of my bedroom,

Oh, look at the spot, there on her

Dress, it was red, wasn’t it, and

Now it’s faded rusty pink,

But you, you still have that look

On your face, you were so surprised,

Yes, you never thought I’d do it,

You thought you had a good thing

That we were forever, the five

Of us, but I grew up and got

Wise and so, you all went away,

Packed inside this wooden box

Surrounded by mothballs in

The corner of my basement.

Hello old friend, you called me today

And disturbed the grave of a memory once buried

Do I thank or curse you for the walk

Down memory lane, you in your self-obsessed

Fantasy world sought me out and forced me to join you

Amongst the boxes and filing cabinets layered in dust

And pushed aside, within the busy confines of my mind,

Did it never occur to you that I may be happy, that I

Had moved on since you? No, apparently not, you’ve

Made choices that stagnated your life but I, no,

My life is a river, the current at times slow and constant,

But more often swift and harried like a white crested rapid,

And now, thirty years later you come back into my life…

Ah, the downside of social media.

That door, that blessed door,

So tightly locked, hammered,

And nailed forever shut,

Why open it now?

The pain, that inexhaustible reservoir of pain,

Why dive within its murky depths?

Is ignorance not bliss

Like a vast underground lake, dark and foreboding,

It lies there, but if I turn my back, it doesn’t exist,

And I can live my life in peace, ignoring the pain.

Copyright 2014