Friend Under Duress

Friend Under Duress
by Jourdan Cameron

My collapse had come;
The great days had hit heir number -
Alone in the cold, the dark, growing number.
Sitting dumb and without thought,
wringing my hands;
What hath I wrought!
Once glittering fruits now rotted out to black,
Putrid and stinking to knock me off track.
Not always was hope so blurry
but it lay so close beneath my bubble-cloud,
That thing dissolved in quite a hurry.
For my days I flew along free of fear
as my world fell apart
It was all-a-jumble,
A mess that began to crumble,
Unwittingly I began to tumble.
The lovely woods had to burn
their destruction I hadn't wish't to learn.
But,
Through the acrid smoke,
You extended a hand
Salvation,
My new life-rope.
With my dying breath I reached out
I clung
I wouldn't release.
You hadn't known it, as you pulled.
You went on,
I was now extricated.
You gave me my freedom,
I was so elated!
Revived me you did
Took me in like a brother.
Your deeds will remain unforgotten,
As day to week to month to year manage to melt,
Right into one another.
I knew you for but a time brief,
As space had changed, what a thief!
But I still know where you reside,
inside my mind, within my heart,
You eternally reside,
Friend Under Duress,
Comrade in Stress,
Pulling me from the wine-press.
I'm fixed and saved, no longer a mess,
Ship-shape enough to sail out again,
Proud to call you an eternal friend.
In the day our boats once again met,
and completely gone was my sickening threat-
Of my boat I became captain,
To you I called a hearty 'ahoy'!
You forgot me,
For I was but a little boy,
It was many years ago.
You came out of your cabin, you were taller now,
we'd chat awhile as you stood near your bow,
older but otherwise unchanged.
We took a trip back as our ships would drift apart, and we went back in to heed our crew,
and sent one another final adieu,
still to meet again.
So thank you.
The peril is gone,
but you are not,
as across the ocean we travel,
we will soon meet again,
inside a speeding train of thought.

For Trisha


Stay tuned, I'm working on a report on Hamlet.