A  FRIEND

You came as a stranger, I let you in.

Instantly you became a friend.

You became a friend, not just in the passing,

But a friend everlasting.

There are things friends do, we do not understand.

But they had to be done for the time at hand.

You think they were done with not a care.

But they were done out of need and prayer.

We think they’re against us, but really they’re not.

They seem to have been done in haste,

But really there was a lot of thought.

It’s bad when things happen to end a friendship

But if both can’t understand

Then the friendship was just superficial to begin with

I hope you see what I’m trying to say

I have not really turned my friend away

I do not become a friend

Just for something to happen to make it end

A friend to me is a friend from the heart

And if the friendship ends, it’s on the other one’s part

          September 1978