GOODBYE BOARD

I just cried tears for those whose signatures

I've kept all these years.

Jason Green made the board itself - with big eyes

for the O's in gOOdbye.

I gave him my walkman before I left,

but Mike Neal - who said I'd be back,

swindled it away from him, before I was even missed.

Not true.

I was missed before I even left the hospital.

Rachel couldn't sign it, as she had been having stomack

problems & was in hospital across the way.

And Brian, who's signature I got last, who was nervous,

& filled with feeling - I approached & he signed:

"See you on the outside - on the lake during the summer..."

& then - scribbled almost beyond recognition - "Love Brian" -

That made me smile in the car ride home -

the ride that took me away from them all -

& some of them forever.

But their signatures stay with me...

And their stories still reside in me...

And the love that I felt for them has only increased.

My goodbye board is crumbling...

But I know every word

& had no need for it years ago.