Distraught release
Despicable disease
Smile nod
Letters told in secret
Words lost
Like the old crow
Ayala
A
Ghost
The Townie
Toast
A toast to what?

Completion (?)

The last time I saw him
Was in the dark
We spoke in riddles
Lost in the mazeful haze of our lives
Doing the things we promised we would
Never do

Take care of family
Marry in to
Another life
Another strife

The only light between us
Was the lighter strike
A dying roach
Both of us
Inhaling
And
Exhaling trauma

This time I listened.

His brother died.

He and his father found him

Described his addiction and how it had him coming
Back
For
More

Thats what killed him

The second hit

I listen in the dark

In my dead Lexus

Covered in dust

Dead

In
A
Dead
Garage

The two of us Shadows
In our own lives
Ghosts

Our friendship burdened with dreams
Escaped into the maze
Still
LOST

I hug Russ on the stair case and tell him, “Losing friends is a part of life.” He doesnt like it.

But it’s the truth
I know

Laying here in the dark thinking of my last hug
With
Ayala

Not a crow
But
An
Old
Soul

James was wrong.

He haunts me in the good way.

Old memory

Now past

At a BBQ

‘How long will it last(?)”

Lingering with acquaintances and half friends

Kind by association

But no one really knows me

Not like a real friend.

Ayala