Feeling the loss of someone so integral to your life and well-being makes you stop and think about things. Like life, death, time and where we all fit in this endless, exquisite and sometimes brutally unfair universe. In the end, we come to realize that very little matters, except for the gifts of love, compassion and presence we give each other. Not what we accumulate, but what we spread around. Not what we take with us, but what we leave behind.

This is for you, my dearest Jax.

– – –

I am stardust, born of supernovae
Scattered about the universe
Briefly coalescing
For but a time

I am the rainbow, shaped from falling mist
Fragile and also powerful
Longing and belonging
Chased by sunset

I am the messenger in the bottle
Carried by mercurial tide
Eternally for now
Like written word

I am the shore, the ground beneath your feet
Together we press and we move
Until erosion’s toll
Sweeps me away

I am the me you see for but a time
As all of us, temporary
Chance clusters of atoms
Adrift in dream