Lost Song: an elegy

How do we say goodbye
to one teetering on the brink of life,
childhood behind, striding towards adulthood,
with unseen tears closeted behind a façade
that excluded everyone, hiding his pain, his fears,
his belief that solace would be found
by departing this world?

Now that pain is riven, shattered
like the souls he left behind, shared
amongst the survivors of the war within him,
who trudge through each day wondering
what they could have done, why didn’t they see,
why didn’t they hear his voice wailing
in the silence of his lonely fortress?

His toddling steps still echo in his parents’ ears,
the smile that once illuminated their life
now extinguished, his laughter, a memory
to be replayed in the night, his name quivering
upon friends’ lips who look, then realize there’s
no one there, just remnants of a lost soul,
an unfulfilled promise who’s time is past.

How do we say goodbye?  We sing
a song of love and loss, share memories of a life
too soon ended, give thanks for the joy his presence
bestowed, embrace him within our hearts, love him
as he was, so human and frail; light a candle to guide
his way onward, remind ourselves that we can’t
control the hand of fate, and say, 

“Until we meet again.”