Friend of My Youth

Friend of my youth, his own
youthful world view as an
inner-city child far transcended
my own cloistered and
parochial exposure, as we 
shared a mutual love of nature
and the wild out-of-doors I
read of, scarce opportunity to
observe, save as a bewildered
selection for the welfare of a
fresh-air camp for the urban
underprivileged. The while he
worked summers on his uncle's
farm, storing up knowledge and
exposure to later impress and
entertain me. This, the boy
who became the man who
invited me to join him in his
ongoing world-wide adventures
at maturity of reason and
opportunity as we together
faced the world allowing it full
entrance to our consciousness
and very long, shared future.