I still remember you

You’ve missed too many sunsets while you’ve been gone. Yet your warmth still lingers in the air just beyond the horizon. I can’t help but wonder what our lives would be like if you still could drag me down that trail just beyond the edge of the woods to see the purple sky. Your footprints have long since been erased and the earth continues to give way with each new rain. The years have faded the ground where you once walked, much like my memories of your smile.

I still remember you.

You’ve missed so many stories of heartache since the day you left. Yet I know you’d have given anything to be there for me when I lost you. The hill where we watched the waves until dark is overgrown and buried beneath the trees. You would like the wild pears that grow in the untamed thicket and made some remark about how their bitterness was tempered by their resilience. I can hear your persistent hopefulness as you’d say the same of me.

I still remember you.

You’ve missed so many of my grand ideas and visions to change the world. Yet your patience is still in the water that softly washes away the sand. The crumbling shoreline gave way leaving only stones, and the cliffs we once scaled have all collapsed under the weight of time gone by. For you, it was enough to change just me. And you were right. You changed everything.

And still I remember you.