You Could Have Been Perfect

We laid together
under your favorite willow
and I listened to you tell stories
about the "good ol' days"
before the diagnoses
and the psychiatrists
and the hospitalizations.
And, when I looked back at you,
I realized the true meaning
of change
when I saw it, raw and undisguised,
in the depths of your eyes.
And just as hazel is an "in-between" color,
you are an "in-between" spirit,
caught between what should have been
and what came to be.