behind us
we leave
   fragments
altering the world
unpredictably
   interacting
spreading to all

like a young man
long dead, crushed
by a war tank
   he commanded
his handsome picture,
found in a box
beside fuzzy slippers
now just waste

i remember how he spoke
standing there towering
   and so kind
goofy as we often worked
i knew his shapes;
body, mind, heart
and discovered moments
past i no longer knew
his name

and i might think, rationally
it was so long ago
   another life
even, and we never really were
the closest of friends

but we knew each other
in the unique chemistry
only two can discover
with the deepest respect

and today after years
never remembering
or thinking, this fragment
   floats by
for me, and for you

he would be embarrassed
if i told you he loves you
but nor would he deny it