Poem: “Farewell My Friends, Your Names Live On”
Farewell My Friends, Your Names Live On
When we rode the bus together
To Kings Island,
We laughed with our team-mates
And forgot about swimming in cold outdoor pools,
In the rain, with Jack yelling at us.
You ate vanilla ice cream
Even though you were a diabetic.
I didn’t understand that, the ice cream,
But maybe you knew leukemia would cut your life short….
I didn’t get to say good-bye.
Mom visited you in the hospital,
Behind a glass window,
But I didn’t get to say good-bye,
Because I was too young, said Mom.
You’ll always be 11 to me,
With a big happy smile.
I miss you John Debruner,
I really do,
Yet, I didn’t get to say good-bye.
Chris Corradino, your smile lights my heart,
As it lit the path along which I ran.
The path where cherry trees bloomed,
With fruit I sometimes picked for refreshment.
Your family of five boys, and a sister, amazed me.
Now I have five boys myself who have sisters.
You were light-hearted and fun…
Boy I wish a few minutes of fun,
Carefree fun: you on a motorcycle,
Just days before your highschool graduation,
Without a helmet, could be replayed.
I didn’t get to say good-bye,
But I rode my bike to see you lying there,
Looking like you, with a big frizzy wig
And make-up. Make up?
They said you looked good…
In a way I said good-bye.
How I miss you, my friend, my friend…
Casually leaning against the gym brick wall,
Hanging out after P.E.,
Chris Gaynor, me, a couple more.
Chris bouncing a soccer ball, like a basketball.
Your smile too brightens my highschool memories.
Heading to the lake, one hot Spring day,
A dumptruck load of Gravel
Heaped upon your car,
Buried, your chest crushed, yet living
Your eyes, your smiling eyes, I can’t bear it.
I didn’t get to say good-bye.
Or tell you what you meant to me,
Warmth, acceptance, joy,
A wellspring in a highschool desert.
I see that smile, with a slightly big nose above it,
But only in the depths of my heart.
I never told your mom, “I’m sorry.”, or
How special you were, to me, and many others.
Somehow I hope she knows, because
You were my friend, and I never got to say good-bye.
Farewell to you
Susie Hertzog and
Kim Martinson, and
Chuck Gorospe…oh the music…
I loved your smiles too!
But I didn’t get to say good-bye.
Did your angels let you know,
That I loved you, in your darkest hour?
Even though I couldn’t tell you,
Peace I hope you felt, and feel.
I love you still.
One Beloved haunts the most,
My Marie, my friend Marie Bott,
A self described “midwife to heaven”,
Who Blessed Mother Theresa birthed into Jesus’ arms
On her feast day. A Consolation.
But I didn’t get to say good-bye,
Except in a card, which you probably couldn’t read
At that late stage. Marie, Marie,
I thought you’d live forever,
The cancer, oh that cancer…
Never dimmed your smile though.
I loved your new gray hair-do,
And I still feel the warmth of your hand,
As you squeezed mine during the Our Father.
You marveled at it. A heavenly current passed between us.
I loved you so. I miss you still.
I didn’t get to say good-bye,
Yet I bake your nut-bread, with prayers rolled in,
The way your handwritten recipe details.
I hope you’re proud of me, a mother after your own heart
A mother in the model of Mary.
You’d never hold it against me,
But I yearn to say good-bye
Good-bye, good-bye……..
Stacy Peterson
August 13, 2013
