To Bobby Who Lives On
By Charity C. Tran

I see you now in headlines
“L.A. School Official”
but when you shift from their
front page to archive
you’ll still be in our headlines
etched in the articles of our lives

you were writing
your dissertation
too many chapters left
of your own to write
of your life to compose

but before your pen
left your hand
its ink had left its mark
composing symphony
in the articles of our lives

you persevered the odds
determined
that others could do the same
you did so with laughter
achieving a quiet kind of fame