Of Lingering Echoes

The summer fields still breathe your name in light,

their grasses hum with laughter long since gone;

I walk their paths and feel the day ignite,

yet shadows follow closer with each dawn.

Your smile remains, a lantern in my chest,

it glows against the chill of passing years;

but every spark awakens my unrest,

and turns remembered joy to sudden tears.

Yet grief itself becomes a quiet friend,

it keeps the image sharp, the colors true;

though time would urge all tender things to end,

my heart resists, still painting you anew.

The memory burns, a blessing and a scar,

a hearth that warms, a flame that breaks from far.