These Things Remain

Yesterday, and throughout the days
of this week
I've been looking for you.
I've done the usual
things:
 filtered the archived emails with
their threadbare words
Scrolled facebook to read
people still saying goodbye
three years after
Checked your blog.  wishing.

I feel this unexpected adulthood
taking root, spreading out-
holding our little town
in it's arms.
Do you remember
how the dusk felt when we sat
on our skateboards?
How our friend sang loud and alive while we grinned?
How there were those leaf piles you said
beckoned?

Do you remember how you wrote those song lyrics
alone in the middle of one late night..
and we found them
a full 4 years later
so our bones began to stop
aching?

Meanwhile,
my town has become a city
full of lights and tall buildings
new people
with their stories growing
into each other

And meanwhile, as grace would have it,
I continue to wake

This afternoon I can feel you
and you don't seem 22. (or 32 even.)
You just feel like my friend
whom I loved in college.. and will love
for the rest of my life