The Echoes of Your Leaving

 (For Clay Seymour)

The echoes of your leaving
Bounce off the vaulted walls
of this room.

Shimmering the air
and the atoms between
in existential crescendo.

Like the soundtrack
Of the movies
You told me
We would make
To resound the voice
Of a generation
Even as your voice
Fell in timbre
And turned to sigh

(I remember the first time you introduced me
to your roommates. You told them, while we
sipped whiskey with coffee beans, that I was a lot
like you, but with a resilience of which you
were dispossessed.)

It gets better (right?)

I imagine this thought echoing
Through the spirals of your brain
Mobilizing the grey matter
To perform this darker act.

As the cord tightens
As the pills take hold
As the bullet plants the gift
At the crucible of your consciousness

Your soul ascends
To light's apex
And you are gone
And I am here
Haunted and wondering.

(If you could not make it? How on earth can I?)