For My Friend Who Lost Her Life To Suicide

Like a wild rose on the sidewalk you lived your life smiling to others oblivious of your own fragility You held your head high until the weight of your disease bent your neck and depressed your head Your will to live browned like petals fell to the ground obliterated by the storms of this battle we fight and I, for all this time did not try to know you did not relate to you until I myself lay awake wanting to die Selfishness is a rock difficult to break to soften, or to permeate kindness into You were to me a breeze passing through a stream leaving ripples of impact You were a friend who modeled assertiveness by speaking your mind without being unkind I will never again see your survivor smile but the fire of your spirit shall not leave my memory