Echo of a Short Friendship

We were friends, For three sunrises and two new moons, uniquely sweet.

We traded secrets easily, We laughed like we had known for years. Then came the harsh, clipped word, the sound That dried the joy and brought the tears.

A clumsy, careless, jagged clash, A thing too small to hold the weight. We closed the door and turned the lock, And left the reckoning for fate.

I thought we had a world of time To smooth the fracture, mend the thread; I kept the silence, firm and proud, Then woke one morning, finding you dead.

Now, I visit no quiet grave, I stand before no marble stone. My guilt is all the earth I tread, A heavy casket, all my own.

For the anger faded, leaving grace, But the apology froze on my tongue. And the few days we had of light Outshine the years I will be stung