My friend, 
strode up those stairs, so long ago,
& still, his voice pumps out
in all its brittle beauty
on YouTube.

Finally, leaving the depression
& the epilepsy behind,
just leaving us
you left us with the music & the dance
telling us all what love will do
& how, precisely, it will tear us apart.

Some will listen and never know
the man you were.
Me? I cannot abide the way
you hid the man you were
 - you have been gone
too long, Ian, but, still, the song
tears us apart, again.