A kind man I knew,
The kind of man you'd have wanted to know.
Charisma, compassion,
Peppermint, and pipe tobacco—
Luxuries I welcomed when we hugged.
I looked in his eyes and
They smiled back at me,
The creases crinkling upward like the corners of his mouth.
Yet each time—
Time stopped,
All else ceased except
His soul…
A glimmer in each iris.
I read him then,
As if he were a leather-bound classic.
And I drank his words,
The purest ambrosia.
I remember how
We laughed, we talked, we danced,
Pirouetting like delicate, dust-spun ballerinas
In a library where he taught me,
He inspired me,
He loved me.
Inside,
I was protected.
He was my warrior
And he stopped at nothing
To shield me.
No one could take him away from me—
Not his sky-tinted eyes,
Nor the skin like pale gold flowers,
Or the way he spoke,
As if he already knew the secrets of the earth.
No one could leave me bereft of him—
Except time.
Time was the enemy,
A merciless enemy.
It froze in the agonizing moments,
But made haste
Whenever it pleased.
It stole moments, days, years …
Whatever it could pilfer,
It took.
A heartless enemy,
An enemy even my soldier
Was no match for.
I thought it had been envious,
Wanting his smiling eyes all to itself.
A child’s reasons.
Deep inside, I knew
Eternity is only a moment.
The Heavens claim him now—
Every cloud is
A wrinkle on his gentle features,
And the sun that warms my face,
His vibrant soul.
He is a kind man I still know,
The kind of man you would know,
If you looked up to the sky.