Justin,

Although it’s been almost nine years,

The memory of your smile still lingers, and always will.

The memories are mostly fuzzy now;

Frayed at the edge and faded in the middle, Like photographs left in the sun.

But there are still those few,

The pictures on the bottom that the sun couldn’t reach,

The memories that time will never fade.

The last time we spoke, bitter though it was, is still there.

Nine years too late, this is my apology.

Why we argued has long left me,

 but knowing you left without my sorry destroys me still.

The memory of the day they told us still lasts on.

The whole class sat there in silence for a long time,

And then someone started to weep.

I don’t know who it was, but it doesn’t truly matter.

They wept for you, and we knew it was ok to cry;

And so we all wept for you.

We spent days mourning you together, and ages mourning you in private.

I still grieve for you, my fallen friend.

The last thing I will hold forever, deeper than everything else, is you.

Your smile, your joy, your true sense of life,

Those things I keep inside me forever, hoping to live like you in some small way.

With love,

Myles

3-6-08