July 6 2003

Remembering a drowned friend

Someone made a cross for him
Set in the earth by the lake where he drowned
I stumbled across it by accident
Crudely made, by whom I could only guess
His friends, his pastors?
Someone who knew him, and wanted me to know him
They wrote his name on the cross beam
Corey Fadden
And on the vertical pole his epitaph
"Lived for Christ"
I never met this young man
Or his friends
I never saw his body
But there I stood and mourned for him
A brother I'd never known
The remnants of candles littered the ground,
Put out by the wind before they were done
Before their time
Before his time
I lit them all, gave them life once more
One last breath of air, one chance
May have saved him

(Cornerstone 2003)