Greetings dear Friend
You have been my companion through
half a century.
Through anorak holidays in the
rain, excitedly pumping big pennies into slot machines
And a fellow traveller in
exploring Europe for the first time in our heady student days
Wherever I’ve been in good times
and bad
You’ve been there, travelling across the globe to keep the link alive
Making the effort to call or write
Using every means to bridge the
distance
You’ve been generous and kind
I remember my fiftieth birthday
and you took me to my first spa
Soaking up the novelty of being
pampered head to toe
I remember all the laughter and
time together and grin
I hate how every year in April you
come to the north coast and insist we enter the sea at the White Rocks in
bathing suits, freezing white Plump
middle aged women screaming with the pain
Why did that become a tradition I
want to know!