This truth is like a sea that has no shore

This truth is like a sea that has no shore,
Chaos infinite in heart and mind:
That you should once have been, and are no more.

To me you are as lovely as before:
Your voice still sings of life, your eyes still shine.
This truth is like a sea that has no shore,

An agony no reason can endure,
A knot of pain no passion can unbind:
That you should once have been, and are no more.

You died because some drunken bastard bore
Across the barrier of one thin line.
This truth is like a sea that has no shore:

That I cannot your battered face restore;
That all my love for you cannot turn time;
That you should once have been, and are no more.

We are all on a death march, numb and raw,
Driven on as loved ones fall behind.
This truth is like a sea that has no shore:
That you should once have been, and are no more.

---Nicholas Gordon