I'll never forget you...I'll never let you out of my heart

"I won't see your smile

And I won't hear you

Laugh anymore"

~ Mariah Carey

We hugged...we laughed..we shook hands

We took pictures...we made promises

To keep in touch...to meet again

here, there, anywhere

We said we wouldn't forget...your faces...your smiles

your optimism...despite the odds

your resolve...to break through

with so much keeping you down...holding you back.

Never, I'd never for get

...but I am...I'm forgetting

Not everything but some things

Like you, C Moh, I almost forgot your name...until I took another long look at your picture

and you Az, I almost forgot the enthusiasm in your voice as you shared your dreams with me

Your goals...plans to make it out...and be the hand to reach back in and help others out

out of the dreary pit...the darkness enveloping them.

And you, I remember your face, yet sadly, no longer your name.

I looked forward to seeing you everyday

I looked eagerly around the field, hoping you would be there

sitting quietly, smiling,

I came to help you but God laughed at that notion

Your gentle spirit brought such calm to my soul and you instead, taught me

Yet, I can no longer remember your name.

Will I ever see you again? Has the purpose of our meeting been fulfilled

Has it just begun?

What is to become of this yearning within me...

It is but a quiet yearning and I want to ignore it...

Because this yearning calls me out...out of all I know...my comfort zone

It's leading me where I fear to go...the unknown

But the little I know of my God, He will not be ignored..not by me

and boy, have I tried

This yearning that brings me to my knees

It comes from so deep within the it can only be God

The yearning to ... go

Where? I do not know

Do what? Eludes me

It is bittersweet.

The joy of being called

mixed with the fear of the task itself

I will try not to forget you.

But I promise never to forget what you have taught me