Seven years since you've been gone

 Seven years since you’ve been gone,

but your memory still lives on.

I see your face in every dream,

hear your laugh in the low sunbeam.

You were the strength I tried to be,

the calm inside the storm in me.

I took a path you wouldn’t choose,

and all I found was time to lose.

Behind these bars, the nights are long,

but thinking of you keeps me strong.

You’d tell me, “Son, don’t let this break,

the better man’s still yours to make.”

Sometimes I talk to you at night,

under the flicker of pale light.

I tell you things I never said,

the guilt, the love, the tears I’ve bled.

I picture you in skies so wide,

your spirit walking by my side.

No chains can keep that love confined—

your lessons echo in my mind.

I’ve counted years, I’ve counted pain,

I’ve prayed for peace, I’ve fought with shame.

But when that gate swings wide someday,

I’ll walk out strong in your old way.

For though this world can cage my years,

it can’t take you—through all these tears.

You live in me, through right and wrong…

Seven years gone, but your love stays strong