Angel Wings

Vessel of Grace

Sometimes as we walk through life, we encounter someone with whom we feel an unexplainable connection. Maybe the relationship holds a label: mother, daughter, father, son, cousin, aunt, friend, lover, and so on. But often, that connection seems deeper, richer, and has more meaning to you than commonly thought. I don’t know what to call it exactly, but I like to think of it as simply love.
At one point in my life, I met someone like this. Our brief time together marked my life in impossible ways, and I hold the connection closely even after her passing. Watching her struggle, especially in the end, hurt us all. Her family and close friends shook with the turbulence. No one who knew her could forget her.
With these words, I seek to honor her memory so that we remember her life and legacy forever.
The following poems commemorate this woman’s struggle, the story she leaves behind, and the love that binds her to this world continually. I ask that you, as you read these poems, consider the various relationships in your life now. Hold the people you love close to your heart (regardless of any labels); tell them how much they mean to you every chance you get. Like my Jayme, one day you may discover that opportunity has passed, and nothing but a memory remains to distract your thoughts.

Echo

I often wonder if you are here or there.
To see and feel you calls my heart to cry,
The breath that binds you lingers in the air;
Now I recall the day your soul passed by.

When days do end with you not here, I dread
That life repels the soul and makes me mourn.
Your laughter lingers – swells inside my head
And calls me closer. Shamed, my faith is torn.
If breath and death exist apart, where’s Home?

The truth inside your absence pulls me down,
A living shadow – here and there I roam.
Quiet days and silent nights, death becomes my crown.

Until I feel that life and death are mine,
I’ll balance lonely on this fragile line.