Forgive me if I seemed brusque at the airport,
these churches to farewell
are not where I choose to worship
and saying goodbye is like sheathing a sword,
the danger is not over until it’s out of sight.
You’re an introspective man, covert with your passion,
but I suspect you were as glad to see us
as we were to see you.
It’s been said that you are a perfect foil
to my extroversion,
we are a sort of Laurel and Hardy of the emotional spectrum.
One of the perils of transience
is the absence of solid friendship
so that we sometimes become
like wings without a body.
Having a friend arrive on our doorstep
is to find something we did not realise
we had lost.
A holidaymaker is as bright in the workaday world
as a mint coin on sunlit concrete
so that our biggest concern
was to polish your days
to the consistency of your previous excitement.
We are rusty entertainers at best.
One of life’s more pleasant surprises
is that we never know how or where
we will forge a friendship.
Friendships forged in the workplace
can be the most enduring
because there is no mandate to like our workmates.
For a few, too short days
you brought back for me all that was good
about my life in Auckland
and I can ask a friend for no greater gift
than to reflect a little sunlight.
Copyright Andrew M. Bell
