With each chat
Each new secret
I plant seeds
Of possibility that
I water with
Affection and interest
Compassion and kindness
Watching my field
Of acquaintances grow
Into a forest
Of friends amongst
Which I hide
When the world
Eventually frightens me
Because it does
And they do
They always do
Absent of now
My mind freely
Wanders memories hallways
Like a graduate
Returning to school
Peering through windowed
Doors and remembering
This and that
Removed by time
And fresh perspective
Like a cold
Kills the aroma
So do memories
Merely hint passions
Leaving you famished
There are many
Things that I
Remember about you
The most poignant
Are by far
The least important
Things as silly
And as simple
As the way
In which I
Lit your cigarette
To forget that
I quit smoking
All together rather
Than remembering it
Winter trees stand
Naked outside my
Window charcoal fingers
Playing puppet shadows
Against cold gray
December skies that
Hover like parents
Over home work
Never really moving
Nary a breeze
All is still
But me seeing
And you breathing
Here beside me
I have learned
In my long
Life that people
Cross my path
Some for a
While and some
For a moment
Neither is better
Just different just
Like the seasons
I enjoy them
Each of them
For the time
That they’re here
HARLAN DIDRICKSON 