Why are friendships like the seasons

Childhood memories are like a cut that keeps bleeding

I envision them like this morning

But all the old places we occupied are now taken by younger people touring

It seems that’s all anyone is – a tourist

Just passing through

Those girls on the high school track, the basketball court, the boardwalk – grew

Like flowers of an unkempt florist

We are a meadow of wildflowers, still beautiful

But in my mid-30s I feel a lull

The Navy, new husbands, career – take each one away

New interests take my friends out like the bay

I am a peninsula, a leaf in late fall, a bud in early spring

I am that basketball on the court still bouncing

I’m that old statue in the garden

Weathered, but not yet too hardened

Watching the clouds

Witnessing the ships go out

The new generation coming in

I watch all the young girls with their friends

I am on the periphery

Of the race course, the park, the coffee shop

Wondering if the longing will stop

Do my old friends ever think about me

Each one of their faces, their secrets, our adventures I remember

It’s springtime now

But I’m not dancing

Or budding

No, all my friends are gone

It is eternal winter