I went to the grave today,
such an odd thing, bright sun about,
birds singing beyond sight,
and here am I, to mourn and not play.
I wish to run among these silent markers,
feel the grass cool between my feet,
seeking playful prey amidst the stones,
not knowing the pain resting beneath.
I ran my hand across the name,
closed my eyes against the light,
traveled back to a time when this name had meaning,
animation...life...
We ran together, you and I,
cutting long sloping turns in winter's grip,
joking about nothing,
living for the mere next moment.
Skidding through turns in summer,
tires humming on dirt,
watching life from nowhere,
climbing to find our souls, and failing,
in moments never lived.
Seeing the face I knew in life,
cast in the pallor of death,
I ask of the silent ground, why?
Why does end it this way?
Why mere feet from where I stand now?
I'll miss this simple soul,
another casualty of this blackened life,
yet another face to haunt my sleep,
remind me of my own mortality in the quiet moments.
I would have gone,
in your stead,
just for another moment,
but it never was my choice to make.
None of us never really knew,
who you were.
This still doesn't change,
the hollow.
original prose, Yurei, 2000