Friendship

Now as the party winds down - as it does -
half-empty jugs of ale, half full of ale,
put down from toasting half-forgotten causes,
lie half-remembered, roundabout the hall.

We may take up by way of recollection,
the glasses that we held, and tend the fire
that heats the hearth’s eternal conversation;
half-joining up our half-discrete desires.

But nothing lasts for ever. We must go
and going means a multitude of ways
and changes - sometimes seeking different goals.
Remember this, for all our future days:

If there is judgement and if I’m the one
to judge, I won’t mind which side you were on.