THE STARS ARE KEEPING YOU

Every time I look at the stars, I remember that someone I once knew is now a part of them. Somewhere up there, you have a place in the constellations, and I wonder if the stars know they are holding someone I still wish I could hold. You're not hiding among them for me to seek now. You are a figment of a dream I once mistook for reality. It will be a long time before we see each other again, and that means I have to be on my best behaviour, doesn't it? I know it's foolish to bargain with time after it has already made its decision, but I wonder anyway. We call it a call to glory. We call it a glorious exit. We offer condolences, we pass our rest in peace, and hope that somehow those words make the leaving easier. But sometimes I think those who deserve those R.I.P.s are the ones left behind, trying to make peace with a world that has suddenly become unfamiliar. We take breathing lessons, learning to inhale without breaking, learning to exhale without remembering that the person we wanted to tell everything to will never hear us again. Sometimes, in the middle of it all, we stop. They're not coming back. And that has to be the cruelest joke that life will ever play on you.