A Tribute to Friendship

A cup of coffee in front of each of us

Steaming, sitting on the two-top table,

The hazy summer afternoon drifting towards twilight.

We’re talking about nothing and everything,

But not really needing to fill the silence.

Looking out the window,

Watching the world pass us by,

We laugh at something, a joke now long forgotten.

Another night, in front of a bonfire,

We’re burning marshmallows for s’mores,

Warming our feet near the fire.

We reminisce about high school and prom night,

One foot firmly in the present, the other lingering in the past,

The smell of burning wood and cigarettes and weed intoxicating.

An afternoon in the sun,

We are walking down the trail,

Winding down offshoots next to the river,

Pausing at a bend to take in the view.

Continuing on, our feet crunching on the gravel path,

We talk nonsense, or let nature fill the silence.

Under the tunnel formed by trees and leaves,

The light filtering down colored a golden emerald by the leaves,

We lose ourselves in nature.

Within minutes, we take another offshoot path,

Leaving park property to more uneven ground.

We trip up over exposed tree roots,

Weaving through tall grass and weeds,

And then we’re spit out onto a beach,

Carved out by the river,

The forest kept at bay by the rocky sand.

We have fun memories together.

With our whole lives ahead of us,

We have promise of so much more yet to come.