*I wrote this poem as a teenager, after a young person I knew died.  I’m guessing it was written between 1996 and 1998, but I don’t know for sure.

Good-bye

Good-bye Old Friend,

I know your gone.

Yourself on this earth will be no more.

You gave your life,

And what you had,

And I know many learned from that.

I stand alone,

And shed no tear,

But go on with fear.

Fear that what we had will someday disappear.

Good-bye Old friend,

I turn away, and leave your place of rest.

The life we had will be no more,

And I must go on alone.

We’ve divided and fallen with no one to hold us up,

But know it’s not your fault you’ve gone.

We’re fighting to hold on, to keep surviving as you did,

But little hope appears over the Horizon.

I travel the journal of life without you now,

And know I must go on.

Fight- I will.

Give up- I can’t.

For what we believed in must still be carried on.

Lives may be gone, but people still need to be taught,

And so I travel on alone now,

Without you by my side.

But there is so much left to learn,

And so little time

If anything we’ve ever fought for is worth fighting for,

Then fight I will.

Goodbye Old friend,

It is for you I continue on.