the loss of Nene


Forever is an awesome word we use without
realize the implication of the verb.
A friend of mine is dead.
I will not see him again in my lifetime I say this
to avoid saying forever.
Summer and winter will pass
snow-topped mountains will remain, but my friend
will eternally be dead.
Ashes in an urn are lightweight
and has little to do with the man I knew.
He is an abstraction
like the dust in the road,
to say goodbye is useless
he is beyond the known.