"melded roads"

They stay with me.
In small decisions.
In the way I steady myself.
In the quiet work of the day.

What the years removed,
mind keeps:
a line resurfacing,
a teaching that took time,
a direction I still follow.

Their lives were brief beside the vastness.
Still, something of them lingers.

May what was good in them move forward through me.
     Not so much burden.
          As continuation.

When they return to thought,
may gratitude stand first

—for the stretch we shared,
for the way their road now melds into mine.

.