Jason Benjamin Josaphat, age 19, Joel Rayon Paniagua, 32, and, Christopher Andrew Leinonen, 32

                 "There is no forgetting, there is no winter

                  that will wipe you name,

                                                shining brothers,

                  from the lips of the people"

                                                                              Pablo Neruda

with Rev. Dana Solomon, in the courtyard of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, we came together for our fifty lost in Orlando. . .  

nearby, a labyrinth, where we also honored our fifty young people and this first day of summer with a Strawberry Moon Labyrinth Walk
                            'Follow the path. . .
                                   Breathe. . .
                                          Be refreshed. . .'

a full moon on the summer solstice happens once every fifty years, known as a 'Strawberry Moon'. . .
  
above us, in Kanemoto Park, the five-story Pagoda of Compassion, built by the Asian Buddhist co-founders of this city. . .

our number varied, but revolved                                

around fifty, including weeping

Presbyterian Rev. David Barker 

and his wife (treasured locals),
also Buddhists, a shaman,  

et al., all of us, together, 
with our diverse faiths, 
beliefs, spiritual practices. . .

how long has it been since I've 
sang "We Shall Overcome?"  

Obviously, too long. . .

My beloved Judith pointed to

a dove sitting on the roof 

above Ms. Dana the entire time, and,

as Judith said in a poem,
'afterwards,
    the dove 

        flew away

            with a prayer 
               on a gust of wind'

these three young men I

randomly chose (all 
were chosen by someones)

to honor and remember, 

lighting a candle for each. . .

and how, I wondered, was I 
to do all I could for them?  
am no dove

carrying a prayer towards

wherever it most 
needs to be. . .

and my heart spoke - 
quote Pablo Neruda!. . .

"We will win.

Although you may not believe it,

                                 we will win"

Jason, Joel and Christopher, honored, I pray, within this post. . . I, perhaps we, will visit them here as we can. . . our fifty 'shining sisters and brothers' shall not be forgotten, and, surely, have not died in vain. 

     
                                                                                                                 

'and we will miss them, won't we'
from ass't. ed's 
Tama and Frosty

that we will, dear ones 








see you in a moment

ayaz daryl nielsen

                                                        darylayaz@gmail.com