I have been writing a lot of what you might call memorial poems lately, paying tribute to the ones that I have loved and lost. You would have thought I got all that out of my system when I wrote Libra Lace (a poetry collection that will be released here on the site in 2008!), but it seems that as time goes by, there is more and more to say.

This poem, Never So Far, is dedicated to a very special girl on what would have been her 23rd birthday if she was still here. I'm an only child, but as far as I'm concerned she was my little sister (some of you know who I'm talking about). I'll keep counting those birthdays as long as I live.

I miss you Mitzi! This one is for you...

* * *

Never So Far

More than a decade later and the tears still flow
when I remember the joy you brought me.
In a time of shadows
when I was confused and searching,
you were a diffused morning glow.
Like the sun's rays filtered
through frosted glass, your light was
bright enough to open my eyes
but not so bright that it would burn me.

You were one of the few who weren't poison
to this girl so fragile, to this sensitive life.
I am still on eggshells,
but now when I hear the soft crunch
I understand that I am only human.
Like the child you loved then,
I am slowly growing up.
Tall enough to reach the clouds
but not so tall that I forget what's beneath.

In both places, above and below, I find you.
You are spirit and ashes; wind and bone.
Reminding me quietly
to retrace the tracks we both left in the snow
and take back the life that was once our own.
Like you did that morning,
I have to go back home.
Far enough to find the things I left there,
but never so far that you can't come with me.