Friendship

When collaborations with a higher power fail.

When collaborations with a higher power fail.

I did not ask for a lecture on the light,

Nor a syllabus on how to stand or speak,

I did not seek a chaperone for the night,

Or someone hired to keep me calm and meek.

I only wanted a hand held in the dark,

A steady mirror for a human face,

Not someone measuring the depth of the mark,

Or checking exits to escape the space.

“Don’t embarrass me,” you whisper like a blade,

As if my heartbeat were a public crime,

You fear the shadow that our presence made,

And guard your image pulse by steady time.

You say I have betrayed you with a word,

That I am reckless, wild, or out of place,

But how can I be heard—or ever heard—

When you recall keeping a pristine space?

You treat me like a fever in the room,

An infection you are desperate to cure,

You watch me through a lens of quiet gloom,

Defining what is “fit” and what is pure.

But friendship is not protocol or pride,

It isn’t curated for the passing eye;

It is the place where jagged souls collide,

Without the need to hide, or fear, or lie.