My heart aches from the void left by the absence. Even knowing time wins all wars does not mollify me in mind, body, and soul. All know this day comes for all things and all beings but when it's so close to the heart, it cannot help but do collateral damage. Such is the end of a life that means so much to those whose hearts they become close to. Collateral damage. I remain while the soul that bound me to itself... and itself to me... departs. Tomorrow the sun shall shine for the world outside. For my world, inside, it shall remain dark for some time. For however long it takes for the black clouds of grief to dispel... for the wounds born of collateral damage heal... for the passage of time to continue onward relentlessly. And, for that time, I shall know absence.

(In Memory of Yogi Berra... kindred spirit.)