For Cindy
Your name, if I were to name you, would be Sunshine-in-Her-Smile.
A note:
Many years ago, I made friends
With a young woman.
She had beautiful dark-brown eyes
And, when very happy,
Sunshine in her smile.
She had bright red hair, shoulder length,
Many virtues, Compassion and Wisdom.
Her passing was the end of all,
The wind not moving,
The breaking apart of the universe.
The light went out and the world went dark.
A year later the endless grief began to lift
One Spring morning with a chorus of bird calls
Outside the window of the room where Time slept.
Awakening to Spring I returned, changed, to life.
Yet even today, whenever I see another
With Sunshine-in-her-Smile,
I remember.
-Dr. Rosenberg
