For You, Friend

Today I am taking a walk

for a friend.

Your friend and my friend.

The world’s sweet friend.

So many have gone and

for now we are still

chosen

to be here.

It won’t always be so.

One day the earth will

call back for our bones.

“They were only a loan”

she’ll say.

“They were only a loan,”

and I hope she will not say

that I forgot.

I hope she will say

I have done well.

That I forgave,

forgave,

forgave.

That I loved until

big wide cracks

erupted on my heart’s

surface, making room

for more, again

and again,

and again.

Today I am taking a walk

for a friend

and through tears I will love

the sting of wintering

through the layers of my clothes

because I am here and I

have loved and been loved

and I have broken and mended

and I have remembered.

Through tears I will thank

my lungs for their

fierce determination

to gulp the frozen air,

carrying heavy boots

over singing snow

and I will miss you,

sweet friend.

Every time I think of you

I will grow an ounce more

room for love.

Every time I think of you

I will whisper something

I have been carrying

too tightly in my throat.

Every time I think of you

I will ask another how

their heart is today

and remind them

they are the most

precious beloved of

the Divine.

Every time I think of

you I will close my

eyes.

A moment.

A moment.

A moment.

For you.