Echoes

I can see you dancing

In the pillow fields in your grief

Stealing rays of an autumn sun like a thief

Stricken by disease, but not by fear

How suddenly November winds

Would carry you away from here

I can feel you fading

As the winter makes its claim

Too innocent to justify or lay blame

And you were chosen as your fate,

But not by worth

So many kind reflections

That you made upon this earth

And I remember your tiny hands on my face

Make-believes and whispers smothered in grace

Now the memories are silent without a refrain

But the essence of your world will not echo in vain

I can hear you laughing

In the pointed face of death

With the ebbing of your strength

And shallowed breath

And if I just close my eyes I see

A pale shadow of me

Looked into a mirror at my own mortality

And I remember as I stood at your side

The times when my emotions

Were swallowed by pride

Now the memories are silent without a refrain

But the essence of your world

Will not echo in vain

There was a calm storm in your eyes

As your fingers around me curled

Not an atom of surprise

When your spirit left this world

Under the clouded veil of night,

A snowflake hit the ground

And you passed into Heaven's light

Without a sound