Not this day

Mortalities image
Gazes back at me
through the mirror
In a photograph
In your face.
~Don’t leave me
not now
Not this day.

I’m not ready
to let you go
you are me
and I am you.
~Don’t leave me
not now
not this day.

You suffered
Great hardship
As a girl
Your strength
Of character
Gleaned from
Those awful years
Is what
I admired most

~~Don’t leave me
not now
not this day.

Your loving spirit
Your warm smile
You gentle ways
Your wise words
Will be with me
Always.
~Don’t leave me
not now
not this day.

But someday you will
Someday I might
I will mark that day
as the day
I became an adult
as the day I walk alone.

The tenuous hold
we have on life
is fragile, vulnerable at best
Precious, perilous

And when it finally
slips from
our reaching grasp
it will remain with us
Strengthened by memories
and the ties that bind
us together
Forever
Through time.