Flashback -A Letter to Cynthia

It was 5 years ago, almost to the day
I'd never met you before that night
But I understood your family's plight
As I stood staring
Thinking, pondering the feeling
It could've been me
had I been where I should've
doing what I would've
at the time when you passed away
-Flashback!

I recall the fearful feeling
As you stared blankly at the ceiling
Of your mother's worried cries
with her grief stricken eyes
You see -you were the only one of your peers
who hadn't made it home that night

It was cold in there
could you feel it?
underneath that white sheet
Or maybe it was just me
Thinking, pondering the feeling
It could've been me
had I been where I should've
doing what I would've
at the time when you passed away
-Flashback!

Your babies are big kids now
Old enough to miss you now
One of them the same age as mine
-As I recall

Grown enough to see
All the pain and misery
of A sister left to mourn and A mother torn
From her babies way too soon.

Wearing your sister's jacket
short hair and matching pants
I didn't know you before then
but in your death we talked as I stood
Thinking, pondering the feeling
I could've been me
had I been where I should've
doing what I would've
at the time when you passed away.
-Flashback!

Today -I sit here feeling the pain
in remembering your name -Cynthia!
You're gone, but I'm still here.
Knowing, fighting the feeling
that it would've been me
had I been where I should've
doing what I would've
at the time when you passed away
-Flashback!