42 lines
1015 B
Plaintext
42 lines
1015 B
Plaintext
## 88:18
|
|
%% 4
|
|
> Lover and Friend Put Far
|
|
>> Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.
|
|
|
|
Occasion: Loss of a friend
|
|
|
|
Lord, their voicemail is still in my phone.
|
|
I haven't deleted it.
|
|
I don't think I ever will.
|
|
|
|
People keep asking how I'm doing.
|
|
I evade a straight answer
|
|
because this loss doesn't have the shape
|
|
people know how to ask about.
|
|
|
|
We weren't married.
|
|
We weren't family.
|
|
We were just the two people
|
|
who understood the same jokes,
|
|
shared interests and history,
|
|
and called each other first.
|
|
|
|
"A dear friend taken from me" ---
|
|
that's a line from an old prayer, Lord,
|
|
and it's exactly right.
|
|
|
|
I don't know where to put this grief.
|
|
It doesn't fit the boxes people hand me.
|
|
|
|
So let me bring it to You instead.
|
|
You know what this friendship meant to me,
|
|
even if no one else quite gets it.
|
|
|
|
Keep their voice with me somehow.
|
|
Keep the jokes.
|
|
Keep what only the two of us shared.
|
|
|
|
Be the friend that stays,
|
|
now that one has gone.
|
|
|
|
Amen. |