Friends are often the most precious and important people in your life. And if you happen to be married to one…

Friends are what they make you

How they carve your shape

With smiles and honest kindness

Friends are often reunited

Drawn together by your string and

Held as gently as a thought

Friends are free from obligation, duty

(Or the weight of guilt that families inspire)

Friends are truthful mirrors of the selves

We seldom are but often crave

Friends come drifting on the wind of luck

The thistledown of chance and fate

(And sometimes stick for ever)

Friends are more than TV soap

Free of side and sentimental froth

Friends will tell you when you’ve missed the point

(Or overstepped the mark and trampled toes)

Lost the train, the plot, the thread, your nerve

They’ll pick you up and dust you down

Redirect you, reconnect you in a trice

(They might just slap you, if you need it

Rap your knuckles, tear you off a strip

And then they’ll soothe you, smooth your feathers

Pat you down as only friends can do)

Friends aren’t always constant, always there

Some drift away like smoke

But those who stay are those who keep us

Part and parcel, daisy chained with love

© David Hermelin 2017