My Forever Friend

Doug and Shirley (February 2022)

Hello, my Forever friend. It’s just lonely me, again. 
You’re on my mind it seems, and in my dreams. 
Your face still lingers, slips through my fingers,
I try to make it stay. Heaven’s just too far away. 

The paths we walked, arms interlocked, hands grasped.
We’d joke, you knew before I spoke, what I would ask.
Your voice, your touch, I miss them, oh, so much.
There is no sound when you are not around.

Once in a crowd, I called out loud, nothing mattered. 
People stared, they were scared, so they scattered. 
I didn’t care. I saw you there, why could they not? 
It meant so much, the sweet tranquility you brought.

You were called to leave. I was left to grieve, 
The honour’s mine, do not pine, just let it be. 
Grief, noblest show of love, show I unto thee. 
I’ll wait for you, you for me, My Forever Friend. 

Douglas Garrett

Loss

For Donna (June 16, 2000)

When bitter loss seems hard to bear,
think long before you pay such fare.
*”The wings of time though black and white”,
leave other colours in their flight .
Oft, before our heart grows cold,
our loss is filled a thousand fold.
From what may seem a finished lot,
such ashes prove that it is not!
And from them rise the greater means
to realize unfilled dreams.

-Doug Garrett

* Quote from  Ralph Waldo Emerson