Absence

It is surprising that although I know that life can make quick, fast turns and make people disappear faster than it makes them appear - it still hits me hard when one is taken away.

Erased all of a sudden, abducted, cut out and all I can see are fading footprints in the snow. And I sit and watch the fooprints, trying to trace the person as good as I can, sketch every valley and canyon, every mountain in his face,trying to rebuild this person again using the pictures in my mind, trying to put weight on an invisible to make him heavy again - to make him visible the fading one so that he can keep on making footprints....at least for a while.

And he will walk again, not far, maybe a step or two until he vanishes again and I will start all over, retracing, resketching...And I´ll make him stay as long as I can until the pictures in my mind, one by one, become indistinct, before they too get erased.

One picture will stay with me and not fade. Too light to make you stay again but heavy enough to leave your footprint in my life.

Rest in peace Jerome.