“What You Are To Me” Reprised

A poem of tribute, love, and appreciation for Rose…

————

Must you ask, what you are to me?

     Then let me say, and say it well.

In the past, you once wore a mask,   

     a face of what I could not tell.  

Then, like a god, you take to task   

     my proud conceit cloaked in a shell.  

Today, intense and raven-haired 

     with wisdom fit for Pallas Athene,  

you are the souls that seldom dared 

     to be the friends who've never been, 

the confidantes with whom is shared 

     my hope of things 'oft never seen.

Now, like the Atlas map and chart,  

     you're a compass to guide my paths

through hopelessness that filled my heart.

     And so, life's trials and downdrafts  

are less severe because you part   

     my sea of pain so I can laugh.   

By Ngoc Nguyen

From: United States