A Vanished Friend

My friend Scotty sent the following anonymous poem on the consequences of not nurturing friendships. I normally do not read poems sent via email (and Scotty normally does not send them), but this one is uncharacteristically good. It also happens to be true.

Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end,
Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,
And before I know it, a year is gone.

And I never see my old friend's face,
For life is a swift and terrible race;
He knows I like him just as well,
As in the days when I rang his bell.

And he rang mine but we were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men.
Tired of playing a foolish game,
Tired of trying to make a name.

"Tomorrow," I say! "I will call on Jim
Just to show that I'm thinking of him."
But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,
And distance between us grows and grows.

Around the corner, yet miles away,
"Here's a telegram sir, Jim died today."
And that's what we get and deserve in the end.
Around the corner, a vanished friend.

Friends must not be taken for granted. Emerson once said, "He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere." Cherish and nurture your friends; they don't have to "vanish."