“Harold”

we close our eyes and see you, Harold
strong, tough, and
with your puns... your own name brand humor
that everyone laughs at anyhow

we saw you struggle and knew that if anyone
had to get this
it should have and shouldn’t have
been you.. “of all people”

we will close our eyes and let those unsick
images be the ones to remember
the ones to store in our memory
the times you remained silent with your wisdom
and let us screw up

we closed our eyes then to not let you in
because we knew and didn’t know all at once
they say the good die young
and sometimes they do
you prove that statistic... even though you don’t prove others

we’ll close our eyes as we drink another drink
and have smoke flare through our nostrils
in denial or not
amazed that this is a sad event
and not a sad one too

we don’t want you to leave
there have been many who shouldn’t have left
picked out of the bunch.. chosen
for some reason
to teach us, to teach them?

we will close our eyes as tears collaborate
trying to figure out everything
your image in our minds just might lead us to
our own answers
and more questions

this is the chaos, joy, and frustration behind death