Looking for familiar faces, scanning the horizon,
a full 360, sun blazing in my eyes.
The familiar faces are beginning to fade, drifting away on a cloud.
And then I am reminded you can’t hold a cloud, keep it near,
it will float away as we all will,
and the memory of the faces with them.
A friend passed away today, a friend I hadn’t seen for awhile.
Someone who’s face I would scan the horizon for when in familiar places.
His face had already begun to fade away from neglect, like the wall that needs painting but now it is floating away into a place I can’t retrieve from.
When I look for his familiar face I will have to scan the horizons of my mind and search the chambers of my heart for he is on a cloud that has left and is out of reach of my human hands.
Looking for familiar faces, looking within myself to retrieve the precious memories that clouds cannot take away.
Brenda Cowan