Five Letters

I think you had come to say goodbye,

but I mistook you for a shadow,

and, afraid, I kept the lights on.

Don't be angry, my friend;

I didn't know you were gone.

So much to talk about,

so much to share;

so many plans and so much work.

and now you're not there.

Five letters is all it took,

to take you away.

Five letters is all there is

between the limbo of yesterday and tomorrow.

Because today you were here.

and from now on there's no tomorrow.

Today's frozen in time.

Just like your memories.

Today's taken on your physical shape.

Today has your face.

Today will always have your face.

Every tomorrow, this today will bear your face,

Until we move beyond language and these five letters.

Death.

Can I write it on the walls?

Maybe then this word will have more meaning,

in the world where you were a friend.

Death,

Digits of this word and yours, greater than twice your age.

These digits adding up to the inauspicious 13,

These digits adding up to an even 4.

4 like these walls that contain my physical existence,

4 like the directions that pointlessly exist, none of which leads back to you,

4 like one lost out of my fingers and toes,

4 like the square of thoughts we shared,

4 like 4 more than the you,

for you're now 0.

What a beautiful progression of such an uneven occurrence.

Perverse beauty.

But you're beyond beauty now,

beyond the world of numbers and alphabet,

beyond speech,

beyond activities like talking, eating, breathing.

beyond barriers of the physical self you so carefully maintained.

I'm sure you can see that your bags lie in wait,

Your clothes still ruffled from when you hastily changed to leave,

Your precious watches and shoes have started gathering dust,

And your people, they're lost.

Your friends are still where they were,

when you started from home,

but neither of you reached your destination.

Maybe the timing didn't sync.

But, you left too soon.