Ode To Joy

A dear friend left me last week. One that I loved,  one I’d miss forever.

Speckle……

Yes, she was only a sheep, an ewe, but friendships forged in love, strengthened over time, are not easily and painlessly broken. She greeted me enthusiastically every time I went to see her, to take care of her. Every time she saw me, happiness lit up her eyes.

Not anymore.

I will miss you so, so much, Speckle.

The poem below is written to her, for her and for me, and for all the other suffering men and women who has lost animal friends due to sickness, death, or simply… circumstances, just like I did.  Friends like these, are mortal and tainted by sin caused by man–like we are.

But there is one Friend Who is eternal, Who loves us more than we could ever love anything, anyone, even more than we could love our own families. Him I love, Him I trust, even when life’s storms and sorrows threaten to swallow me up in their angry, surging waves.

I dedicate this poem to Him: the Friend that—Thank God for His love!!—I never have to let go of.

 I Had To Let You Go

The early morning fog hung in the air; still, dense, suffocating.

The halter rope scraped, bit into, mocked at my trembling hands.

The sun hid itself, unwilling to be a witness of such cruelty.

The time had come for a final tearing apart of friends—I had to let you go.

Your eyes looked up to mine, so deep and clear in its amber confidence, its unwavering trust:

My heart went out to you, breaking and bleeding: I was a traitor, a betrayer of your unconditioned love.

But there was nothing I could do to stop the inevitable, never could stem the flow of time.

The hour was near, was here: I had to let you go.

The door to death and uncertainty yawned before us: and I had to push you in.

Obediently, without doubting me, trusting my guidance you stepped into the darkness—

The door clanged shut, a sickening thud, locking you away from me and me from you forever.

There had been no choice, no other road: I had to let you go.

With a jolt the truck lurched off the road, the taillights the color of blood:

The color, the substance that would soon disfigure you: innocent, loving, gentle friend.

My eyes blurred—tears turned to sobs—as the truck disappeared down the street….

And you disappeared from my life: I had to let you go.

The parting was sudden, our life together too short, too brief:

I loved you while you were alive—I love you now—but now love is overshadowed by grief.

Tears flow down unbidden, irrepressible, for the friend that I had—and lost—

Choice did not exist for you, for me: and I had to let you go.

A bit of wool to remember you by: your playful antics, your carefree life:

Memories fill my mind of you, of us together, of your twin lambs, your unmistakable call…

Memories that cause a smile on my face, and tears to fall down my eyes—

The parting may be past, but the wound is still raw—I had to let you go.

Now standing here, leaves falling onto the ground, dead leaves all around me—

Dead as you are now, or soon would be.

Dead—but forever alive in my heart, in my memories.

And so I let you go.

You were, you are, you forever would be my friend.

Nothing can change that, not even death. I love you.

I only ask that you forgive my wrong—for your sake and mine—

I had to let you go.