FROM EARLY DEATH
For Carol, on the loss of her 16-year-old son

          He was in the flower of his youth —
          cognizant of Truth;

          Vibrant to his many friends
          and filled with solid promise
          to the years that come;

          yet he is gone —
          cut off.

          The music that he made —
          The laughter he created —
          the love that he encompassed
          and sent out:
                       
                     frozen in a moment;
                     converted suddenly
                     into memory.

Yet love remains;
painful,
powerful —
energized to convert into goodness
the wake of such a tempest.

His footsteps suddenly emerge as beginnings
for his friends
to pathways in the truth,
truths that spring from God,
reflected in his life —
blazing now before them to be translated,
made their own, in varied forms —
to those with eyes now newly made to see.

And from this mist of swirling pain
new knowing comes:
          renewal of thanksgiving;
          new eyes and ears to deeper comprehension;
          new targeting of life:
                                out of death
                                new life arising.

Slowly, formlessly at first,
but rising surely
even as the pain subsides —
life arising.

Slowly but surely:
                                Life.

                                Life.