When We Still Walked Together

There was a time
before the smoke
learned our names.

Cities fell behind us
without asking
to be forgiven.

We carried nothing
but each other.

One small hand.

One forgotten bear.

Enough
to keep tomorrow
from disappearing.

Even now,
when I remember
the first road,
I do not remember
the ruins.
I remember
that we walked
together.

The light
did not
ask
who deserved
tomorrow.

It simply
found
two children
walking
toward it.

When We Still Walked Together follows two children crossing a landscape marked by loss, their joined hands forming the quiet center of the painting. Ruins recede into shadow while light gathers before them, suggesting that hope is not the absence of devastation, but the courage to continue in relationship. The work reflects on memory, innocence, and the fragile inheritance carried from one generation to the next. It sits inside of a mythopoetic narrative arc still under construction called The Jerusalem Fumes Trilogy, The Gateway Series, and The Silikind Wars.