Something I found and dragged out from a folder in my computer, written long ago. Written with all the unsubtlety of youth.

A Friend
__________________

when we take photos together
we are never alone
always, you and me
separated by two or three.

when we go on dates and dinners
it is always with the others
with friends and shouts and cheery noises
your laughter amidst many voices.

I worked my way through the sunlit crowd
the implacable distance of people
through photos and functions and countless yearbooks
down queues, in meals, through changing looks.

I have been a patient smiling face,
I have waited madly by the phone
written too many poems, heard too many songs
watched you through the spaces where your library books belong.

I found you finally in the crowd
I reached my hand to turn you round
and you did, but in cheerful agreement
with someone else’s call, and your gaze was distant.

when the albums have ended, and the tapes run out of time
the voices swallowed by distance, and your footsteps too faint
I tread gently through the madding crowd still
looking for your traces, and your footsteps to fill.

I cannot help it, I miss you so much
the delight of your laughter, and the surprise of your touch.