I try to hold on to wisps of you,
Caught in the gunfire of my own force
Because a year ago, the beginning of the end began
And I tried to push you out, assuming
That it’s only human
To try to forget when it hurts too much.

And now, you’re a name on a history book page
Learnt but forgotten, fading away
A distant ghost of your smile remains
And I struggle to bring you back,
To feel the same way again
But I can’t.

There are moments, though:
A picture, a song, a letter, a flashback
When the memories we made
All come flooding back:
The magic you did, the illusion you cast
of forever safety, love that lasts.

And one day your great-grandchildren
Will point at a yellowing picture
Forgotten inside a falling-apart card tricks book
Or an old diary with letters to no one
And I’ll tell them with a smile
That that was the man who happened
To teach me how to fight dragons.