A Simple Lesson Poem by Jim Yerman

Many years ago I had a friend whose life came suddenly to an end.

What could have caused my friend to die before I chanced to say goodbye?

For a while I drifted aimlessly as I tried to understand this tragedy.

What could have caused his life to go? Why so sudden? Why didn’t I know?

It was a passing that was unforeseen, what, if anything, could it mean?

It showed me how we never know our time to come or our time to go.

I made a vow at his gravesite then, to never let that happen again.

To tell my family and all my friends before our lives come to an end

How lucky I am in their lives to be and how very much they all mean to me.

It’s funny how the simplest things that set our world aglow are oftentimes things we already know.

But sometimes it takes a tragedy to help us be the person we’d like to be.

I think of my friend often with a smile and a sigh and I’m sorry I never got to say goodbye.

Even today there is nothing I wouldn’t give to tell him how his death taught me to live.

I’d thank him for teaching me long ago to tell people how I feel before we go.

So I will never again have to wonder why...or have regrets when we say goodbye.

Thanks old friend for helping me keep that vow...Hmmm...I wonder if he hears me now?