Fall

It's late summer but fall in my heart.  I feel like my heart has been spread thin like butter on a piece of cold toast. It, too, has been beaten from cream.  Beaten, then spread.

Where it's not thin, it's just plain missing.  It harbors a void that I can't imagine being filled.  I know it will be, but it's hard to believe.  The emptiness gnaws at my soul.  The reminders are everywhere of what was wrenched out so suddenly and forcefully.

And I was but a friend and business partner.  What of his widow?  His young children?  What will they feel in coming days, months, and years?

I never before realized that it's not just about the past and the memories, but the empty future that, during mortality, will be without him.  His mortal chapter has been written.  The final period has been typed.  Next chapter.

This chapter, I pray, is short.