Though it was anticipated for over a decade

The phone call came unexpectedly from far away

It however delivered a sad message

You were battling a recurrent cancer

And now in the terminal stage

Stupefied by your grave condition

The excitement of hearing from you

After such a long intermission

Was nearly abolished

An old Chinese proverb says

it takes hundred-year of cultivation

to reap an opportunity of boarding

The same ferry with someone

Then our sisterlike friendship must

Take thousand-year of tillage

After your passing

Our friendship, culminated in

The reunion over phone

Forever turned into memory

The poignancy from the long void

Of our relationship still lingers

Those missing years must be hard for you

It also left me with a question unanswered

Yet it is unimportant now

Though you did not voice it

Clearly, your last call was

Not just to say final good-bye

But also to tell me you had

Kept me in your thoughts all along

By Shih-Fang Wang

From: United States