How Come My Friends- Annamary Jeffery Herther HOME POEMS
Written on February 12, 2008 on the occasion of Kathy Glover’s 65th birthday
How Come My Friends?
One comes like a stranger to a door: seeking direction or peddling grace.
Another enters as acquaintance and ages like Roquefort to become dear in the dark corners of life.
Some are constant as air and others, like the apricot gladiola bulbs of my Nana’s front garden, are gone during difficult times; they require a regiment of specific care and prescribed convalescence, and leave me to wonder, “Are you worth the effort?” When suddenly, they burst forth in outrageous beauty, enhancing my life, though briefly, in a way no other can.
And some, some of the very best, are like buses: the ones that run behind schedule when you are very late
and it is very cold. They come when you are passed believing anyone should be there for you:
arriving warm and steady,
moving through all weathers
in lumbering, utilitarian constancy.
And still, some are like pearls: in infancy arriving as mere irritant and stray grit,
transforming over time into treasure.
All are like backyard birds: cardinals, crows, wrens and robins.
Each a harbinger of grace in unique song, shape, color and presence.
Each with a double blessing:
that which friendship gives, and
that which friendship asks.