A Treasury of Friends

Who among family and friends
might know you best than those
with whom you shared your
childhood years in a conspiracy
of self-help, to grow with confidence
and the aid of treasured peers
into the future? With a long lapse
when adulthood takes you away
from one another and fortune
eventually reunites you, the clasp of
friendship is renewed as though
there never had existed a gap.
If that gap represented the major
proportion of your adult life
would it matter? Might they know
you any the less? Would it in any
way diminish the influence you
had on one another in your care
for each other and the encouragement
given in reaching out together toward
the future? Is it ever too late to finally
understand that the appreciation
unspoken requires a spoken and
heartfelt validation, that it is time
at last to spell out that recognition.