Note:
Over the course of my life, for many years, I’ve dreamed many, many dreams about loved ones dying, the grief and the loss of it. One night I woke up from such a dream, with my heart filled with such a grief, and I woke with this poem in my heart.

This poem is for all the closest friends of my heart. I love you.

*****

don’t ask me to say good-bye

don’t ask me to say good-bye
 
we got into such trouble together, you & i
we snickered as we pulled a few pranks
we drank until thoroughly drunk, a time or two
we even howled at the moon,
when the full moon called for it
 
we rushed to share tidbits
about our latest crushes
we gossiped about
our most torrid love affairs
and then sometimes,
in the brutal aftermath
when the love ended
we cried because
we just needed to have a damn good cry
so we cried until we laughed
and then we laughed until we cried

we lurked in the same dingy discos
we acted on the same stage
we danced the same soft shoe

we pulled each other up
when we were most down
we flew over the moon
over our shared joys

you were ever a friend
you were always a pal
you were the moon of my delight

we lived and celebrated life together

don’t ask me to say good-bye, now
don’t ask me to say good-bye

i won’t say good-bye
i just won’t

i won’t say good-bye
because i love you
and it hurts too much
oh how it hurts so much
it just hurts too damn much
i just love you too damn much

i won’t say good-bye
because a piece of you
lives inside of me
in the deepest, deepest, deepest
most profound place
in my heart
the place
where the strongest love lives

a piece of you
will live there
in that special place
in my heart
forever

so i won’t say good-bye

i’ll say instead
so long
until we meet again
on the other side
of the light

so long, my friend
see you on the other side, dear heart

i love you.

***