Gone Too Soon Poem by Michael Eziudo

You came at dawn
With the zeal and energy of a young day
Promising and hoping all impossibilities to win
The world seemed a cascade of labyrinth decoy
You were capable of taking the bull by the horn and holding unto your gun
You won

You lightened the dark world in your world for me
Coming into you was a smooth journey
We embraced us
And had a life
Where are you now dear life
The us became single hearted
One is now learning to be full from its half
If letting go is all that matters now it would be given a hard nod
It would be put in mama's pot of okpa beans
That one she puts nail inside so it cooks fast
It has to cook fast
I have become the shadow of myself - the skeletal frame of my bone

But one thing won't ever go

Memory

The times spent under the frangipani tree
That one outside our obi nguzo
Papa's favourite place of rest where he rests on now
Where when he sighted us using refrained to his barns that are far out of use now
The laughter that resounded from mocking anyone who wasn't with us
Not that we let anyone in with us
Or from the nonsensical humorous topicless gibberish that kept us talking all day long
I still can hear you laugh

These eyes went bloodshot red and went too heavy for this head to carry
Your world has now gone with you
Buried in opaque glass of transparent world
You are the wary you once had of us now it you lead
Should I say more

Should I say more
Should I say that you died in my heart the day you murdered me in cold blood
The day you made me believe mama's okpa we ate from days we left our mothers' breasts
Till we could stone the ugiri trees and run
Were sandstones in your mouth
Mama taught me not to hold back
For you I left my heart open and my hands bare
But six inches is smaller to this you pierced them with

So I looked on with life sank into the bloodshot eyes
Space had nothing in it but I looked on
Like I'd find meaning in the meaningless mirage
I'd give a cold shoulder again and again for deep down there where I stare
I couldn't find the you in the image I just saw
This you is a stranger
But without a word from across ways
You left
I may have eventually been man enough to confront this
And may never give the chance again for as little as a deja vu
But you were gone
You were gone too soon