For All the People I Never Met and [Never] Could Have Known (Poem)

You were brilliant,
you were young,
a young,
man.
And I walked through the same halls
as you
a few times,
I know.
And I probably saw you,
receive an award or two.
Shake hands with people I knew.
And you were so smart,
so talented, skilled,
A strong leader,
strong, so driven,
such a friend,
to so many.

And you,
man I never knew,
you, a crush's father,
never met,
and I
attended what
should have been
a celebration
of your once-earthly
life.
How much it hurt to see,
it hurt to know,
to see the rest in pews ahead,
reading, singing, speaking,
your spirit gone.

And dear, dear, young woman,
your face, your words,
etched in so many hearts,
your life living on in family
and video screens.
You, for whom
songs
were written,
holidays established in
an entire community,
for you,
Books inspired.
And you, star, won't go out.

And you,
in another book,
another story,
example inspiring many,
but you too, were human,
but with so much compassion,
young woman,
and your life brought so many,
to the God you believe in.

For the constantly misimagined,
for the never buried,
even in writing,
for the oblivion that cannot wipe you away,
for the places that you still live,
love,
Oh, I longed to be
someone who knew,
someone who could have been
the shoulder,
the ear,
the arms,
and the eyes.
Lives so full and short and torn,
now at home,
pray, at peace.
Would I have known?
Would I have known,
how?

Shut the selfish thoughts away,
I could be you, friends.
I could be you, someday, sometime,
soon,
or long away.
The decision is not mine to make.
In light of your lives,
mine must show truth, love, compassion.
Oh, may I not forget you.