Fourteen years, my son, since last I held you, yet love has never learned to count the years. Your name still rises softly in the quiet— Skyler Lee—a light no darkness clears. The world has turned through fourteen springs without you; I’ve watched them bloom, and wished that you could see. There is no season I have not walked through with all you were still keeping pace with me. I cannot tell you where the lost years go, or why some stars burn briefly, then depart. I only know: wherever life may lead me, you will always be my son, my heart.