Member-only story
A Thousand Friends
Sitting on the porch, watching dust settle in the light,
I have a mental Rolodex of faces keeping me up at night,
Middle school, high school, job number three,
"Friends for life," we signed it in the yearbook margins,
Back when hope was high and all our hearts were unhardened,
Laughed at the same jokes,
Now they’re just phantoms, like smoke when the fire chokes,
I trace the timeline, wonder where the roads divided,
How’d you go from riding shotgun to totally out of sight?,
Was it time? Was it distance? Did we slowly drift?,
Or was the "friendship" just a seasonal gift?,
Most of them I haven’t seen in over ten years,
Just in my memories, shedding silent tears,
It’s on the chest when you do the inventory,
Realized you were just a character in their short story.
And I wonder where they went, do they ever think of me?,
Or was it just a phase of the youth we had to flee?,
Called them brother, called them sister, thought the bond would never end,
Now they’re just strangers who used to be friends,
That’s just how it’s supposed to be, I guess,
Trading deep connections for a fading emptiness.
