Ally

Easily the greatest ending in history
was the one where you took my side
even though I was losing badly. Maybe

you did it for that reason, thought
you could save me, turn the tide —
I don’t know, but I do know

that when it became clear
that there was no way out of it for me,
you stayed when you could have gone,

and that is a comfort, although I am sorry
that it cost you so much, that they hounded you
into the dark and kept after you until

you probably perished out there
far from home and joy and safety.
You likely can’t hear this, won’t see it

ever.  It’s written on the same wind
that lifted and scattered my own
defeated bones. It’s all we two have

of that moment of furious and futile
strife and hope. I just needed it said:
you were an ally, you were a friend.

Even if we are forgotten, 
something of that loyalty
will endure; if it’s too much 

to hope for it to triumph
in the long term, it will still
have been worth the doing.