There was a boy I once knew

Back in school, when everything was simple, everything was new.

He had a kind face, a pair of innocent eyes that could look right through you.

 

A good student, a loyal friend, an honest child.

Day in & day out, I would see him, & he would smile that innocent smile.

As children you’re oblivious to the harshness of life, at least for awhile

 

But one morning, I woke up to the fact that he would never come back.

A moving truck, a steep path, & four children whose future turned black!

I was familiar with death, with loss, a world full of life, but life is what it lacked.

 

I wonder what would have happened, if only, if only he’d survived

What would he have become? Maybe an artist who could paint the colors alive

Or maybe a doctor, or a teacher, or a lawyer who swore to strive.

 

What would have been his story? What would happen to a life whose light wasn’t stolen?

His share of dreams, his love, the heartbreaks, his memories from a path that’s now broken.

How is that miracles occur every day?  Except for that day, when his time was frozen.

 

How is that we all made by? Never understanding the value of our lives.

But the universe deemed his soul unworthy of a second chance, leaving no choice.

Our world is built on borrowed time from all the lives that are lost. Maybe we pay that price.

 

It has been over 10 years since he breathed his last,

I listen to the wind for his voice; try to picture his face, that smile that’s buried under a time in the past.

He should have made it, why didn’t he make it? Why did his time pass too fast?

 

Time doesn’t stand still, and we all have grown up; broken pieces of our heart put together,

The losses of our loved ones weighing down on us, shattered dreams, a love that didn’t last forever

How easy it is to be lost in misery, between the hands of a clock that won’t turn, with a beating heart that’s severed.

 

I know that the universe owes us nothing; that the tides of the ocean will erase our footprints,

The winds will blow away every sign of our existence. Oblivion is inevitable and one day we’ll all be doomed.

But until then, until that final moment of the our last breath on this earth that is set in motion in an unknown direction,

I believe that we all owe a tiny part of our lives to our loved ones whose light was stolen; leaving words unspoken, dreams broken, unexpressed emotions.

 

Because they never got to complete their story, live their lives; tell their tales of love and heartbreaks; fulfill their dreams.

But I know that even when they’re gone, they’re not far away. Time may pass, but it isn’t lost.

Their memories, the moments of sadness and joy, the echoes of their laughter and the reflection of their smiles will continue to live in the people whose lives they’d touched.

What is given will always be taken back, so my dear friend, our paths will cross again, in another life, in another time, for this is life in its unending cycle.

 

But until then, I’ll think of you, I’ll miss you!