In Loving Memory

I was young when you left.

Four years later,

it still slaps me in the face every time.

Sometimes I’m afraid I’ll forget.

But doing so would mean that

I have let you down.

So I can’t forget

because I owe you.

I owe you at least that much

to carry on your long name

and your short life.

But forgetting would be easier.

Thinking of you pains me.

You haunt me every day

in the best and worst ways possible.

Forgetting it happened would be blissful,

but it wouldn’t be right,

and it wouldn’t be true.

You were young when you left.

Four years later,

it still makes me smile every time.