All those switchbacks cut the time in half
You were on the furthest branch, your forehead dipped in candle wax
There's no peace in rest on that other side
But we'll sleep better here believing that you might
And we spill wine and share the stories
Which strain to capture you just right
And there was not a dry eye in the house
You didn't leave a single dry eye
Gone too soon
Your ex-roommate sends his love
With an old snapshot of you at a barbecue
Sticking out your tongue
I passed Brian Byrd crouched down on an empty patio
One hand still holding onto the broom
The other sweeping your laughter from his eyes
Because now you're gone too soon
Well, Jeff's been sketching a family of pigeons
On the ledge of his apartment nesting
He might convalesce until those eggs hatch
With butcher paper and ink wash at the ready
And Noah takes the horse trails through milkweed and bur oaks
A broken sunset spills before him
And you've got the surliest waiters in Omaha
In the kitchen crying into their aprons
Gone too soon
Shake off that dusty epithet
Nobody laugh and nobody move
Can't you see I'm trying to take your portrait?
Wearing your cowboy hat in that linen suit
And whistling an old Waylon Jennings tune
We just turned away for a second, it seemed
And now you're gone too soon