You Were There

I heard you played the fiddle,
though I never heard you play.
I was told your favorite story,
though I never heard you say
what your favorite poem was,
or speak your favorite verse.

I wish that we had had the time
to sit down and converse.

We're related by some precious bond,
I feel it in my bones -
if we had had that time together,
who knows what we'd have known.
But you were there and I am here -
our paths again won't meet,

Except, perhaps, in dreams and thoughts
that live in this heart's beat.