A lover in Ashes (For Layne)

burn,
because i love you.
rest those weary eyes
for they cannot see
the thousand candles
merging on the wet april pavement.

whether the sky expands,
or calls forth its guards,
retrieve your wings
for they're no longer denied.
sleep in peace,
my tired comrade;
ask no more
for you have done your part,
and sung your way to salvation.

i stand here, my delayed hero.
i listen while you hum;
i only know the tune, the words,
and the names,
but not the story
and the suffering.

fly onward,
transcend time,
and haunt the pages
of fame and history.
let your wake tell your story,
and i will happily bear
the scars you left,
my lyrical dead, my harmonized lines,
my lover at seventeen.