I keep seeing you, in the unlikeliest places

Certain that you were in the corner

Last night under the street lamp

The scratch of a match as you lit your pipe

And there by the lake, striding

In front of me, just out of earshot

As I run to catch up, my legs turning to lead

You turn the corner out of sight.

And often when the thunder rolls

The dogs whine, their ears pinned back

I talk to them softly in a sotto voice

Finding comfort in words we left unsaid.

You don’t say much, you don’t need to

Your baritone resonates in my head.

Cutting corners, taking turns

I cannot let you remain dead.