The last time I saw Your beautiful face,
I was seated in the backseat of a car behind You
with people You knew well, but I only knew in
name and physical appearance.

Your features were
perfectly painted
in Your rear-view mirror,
and mine were
perfectly hidden
behind tinted windows and a

blind spot

that You,
against all better judgment,
refused to check.

Maybe You knew
if You looked,
You'd see me,
a dark silhouette
of the lovely girl
I was before I came to the realization
You were leaving. Leaving-- not only me
not only the two seated
in the driver and passenger seats in the car
which carried me,
but everyone You knew
and loved
from this run-down,
construction-ridden excuse of a town.

I know it's not
Your fault
that You had to go,
nor was it even
Your choice.
but I wished,
while looking at Your face
that one last time,
that I could have seen
Your soul
more clearly before You left.

You see,
Your soul
wasn't reflected in the mirror.
Nor was
Your voice,
Your song,
Your devotion...
Everything that I
Loved
about You, my dear friend,
was hidden from me;
and,
please believe me when I say:
I checked my

blind spot

for them
and made certain that Your own
tinted windows
were rolled down.

So why then,
is my last memory
of You,
The Girl who set aside Herself for a moment
to get me away from
the alcohol,
the drugs,
the life that I am much better without,
just a glimpse of Your face?

I think maybe now, looking back,
it's all I needed to remember
what You've helped me become.
for through Your face in that
rear-view mirror,
I can remember everything.
I remember the first time
I saw
God through
Your eyes,
the first time
I heard
Your lips
let out beautiful song or advice
that could only come from years of experience,
the first time
I noticed
the intensity on
Your face
as
Your ears
listened intently to my problems,
and the first time
I felt
You
embracing my shivering form as I cried.

This may sound to some
like I'm confessing an unspoken, passionate love
for You,
but I think that is what scares me most about losing You...
You're only a friend.
a friend who has changed my life
in such a short time,
a friend who taught me how to deal with
my problems
myself,
be beautiful,
and how to
know
that I am never alone.

You always saw the deception of my intellect approaching,
trying to mislead me,
and helped me ward it off.
You never failed when assisting
to avert my mind's eye from the
illusions,
drawing me ever closer to the subtle
allusions
in life that,
before I met You, were in my

blind spot.