Hey Melanie! (In Loving Memory of an Old Friend)

Hey Melanie

Yeah you

You with the fearless eyes and solid gold smile

You are not forgotten

Not for an instant

Your words, etched against time in high school yearbooks

Imploring me to live life more fully

Words to live by, words that depth-charge and catapult me now more than ever

Look at me now, Mel!

Look at all of us inlet kids

Scattered like summer driftwood

But still singingly alive

Just like that grin of yours

Never to fade away.

Hey Melanie

You who was always the life of that perpetual party

Forever the summer of '93

Can't you hear us?

We're right behind you, cuz us inlet kids never quit

Can't you hear the house band?

They're not half bad, I think

With Tyler on drums and Brian D on guitar

That's me on the microphone

And that song? That's the one your electric spirit

And that note you passed me in grade 9 French class inspired

Riotous times ensue

With you at the centre, egging us on

Hey Melanie

Yeah you, soul sister from the straits

Central Saanich will never be the same

Without your raven hair, raucous laugh and roiling spirit

Durrance Lake is still the place to be in summer

'Cept the trees cinched in an inch or two

With news of your departure

An endless shout still echoes through the rainforest

And amid the rocks and stones of Island View

The beauty became you, and you it

Distinctions now melted away.

Hey Melanie

Don't you know that smile of yours

Still ignites the night sky

Over the island canvas of my childhood

Paths long diverged but never forgotten

They say you can never go back home

But us Brentwood babies never truly leave

That place where summer nights are long

But memories linger longer still

We'll see you again when all us inlet kids
join you on the beachhead of the day after
fire alight, spitting at the moon, rainclouds running scared
with you in the middle, forever keepin' in real

Hey Melanie
Don't you know on the island there are no goodbyes
Only catch-you-laters
But until then our hearts will cry out for your sassy smile
All our thoughts and candlelit pujas cast loose upon the ocean
For you to catch on the other shore
Eternity begins tomorrow - not that long to wait really
But until then, stay warm and be loved

And don't let go

Cuz we sure as hell won't