The Long Companion

Hello death, my old friend

I hesitate only slightly

to bestow this moniker—

after all, who but life

has been my companion

for a greater length of time 

Somewhere between first breath

and borrowed time

I learned this much:

life teaches us how to love 

but never how to let go 

That lesson comes later 

spoken softly 

when the room grows still

and the words finally listen 

The father of a friend died 

I wrote from grief 

Another friend 

Another father 

Again, I wrote 

Two poems 

Two vocabularies of absence 

Two postures of grief 

One held hands across a lifetime 

One followed footprints already fading 

Both believed the separation temporary 

Life escorted me through joy and sorrow 

But you, Death, leaned close

and explained the meaning of both 

So come closer, old friend 

Not to claim me 

but to sit with me for a while 

There are things I still don’t know 

and you are patient

in the way only endings can be 

Teach me how to honor

what I cannot keep 

Teach me how to carry

what will one day carry me 

© Ron Simpson Jr. 

January 18, 2026