When Young Men Die

When young men meet with
inexplicably sudden and biting ends,
     not the whitewashed passing of those long in the tooth,
     the silver-maned for whom all mourning may expire at death;
that burrowed-under-the-skin ache
where labored breath takes speechless flight
and bids farewell to carefree thought -
no, that a God of love
carries my heavy heart
seems inadequate in this wake.