"I Am Always Remembering..."

 

"Hello, Is This Christopher?"

6:55 PM, Wednesday, 20th September 2006

This anniversary is not marked by joy, but by an echo.

He remembers the time when a phone call’s simple ring

announced a future he could not yet know.

He remembers a voice—not just a sound, but a force—

that pulled him in with a gravity of its own.

The melody of an everyday word was the start

of a new, secret language only their hearts spoke.

He didn’t know then that he was listening

to the overture of his life, a love so complete,

whose tragic, sudden ending would haunt him forever.

Now, in the quiet of this day, he closes his eyes,

and the decades dissolve. He is there again,

in a vehicle that smelled of dust and hope,

and hears it once more: that thrilling, fleeting call.

The voice, clear and whole, speaks to him from the past.

But the echo fades, leaving him alone in the silence.

This day, every year, is a monument to what was.

The start of everything and the start of the absence,

a forever love held fast in a single, remembered tone.

I am always remembering... and this is one of the days when my greatest fear is that I may not live long enough to forget.