11 October 2012
It was a long day, that day The same as every other The stars shone bright and cold And we were all quiet as mice
We knew what was to come soon We all knew what would happen The events to come about were wrong We didn't understand why it hurt
All we knew was that he had a duty He had to leave us and pursue his life And despite his resentment and fear We would all miss him
He wasn't perfect, I'd admit that He could be cruel and hateful But I pitied him for that hate As he directed it in on himself
We all stood up as he walked in His suitcases in his shaking hands He put them down by the door And walked over to us in the corner
He shook hands with our comrades Regret lined his face with worry Goodbyes were brief and sorrowful He didn't look them in the eye once
He reached me and reached for my hand But changed his mind and pulled me in Hugged me tight as his last goodbye 'See you.' He said. 'I'll miss you.' he said.
I whispered back: 'I'll miss you too.' He let go and saluted to me I returned the salute with vigour Not knowing how long it would be
My best friend was leaving me I had to fight to hold back the tears And as he waved and picked up his bags My heart jumped as I thought of the danger
But it was time to let him go and live He would always return to me That was a promise we'd both made And it was never going to break.
Sure enough, three months passed And he returned to my side Battered, bruised, and scarred Memories making him cry out at night
I slept by his side for weeks As he healed inside his mind And finally, he turned to me and said 'Thank you for what you've done.'
He pulled me close one more time And we stayed there as long as we could And to this day I remember the fear I could feel inside his heart as we touched
I'm trying my best to heal him now Every day I keep my promises And he tells me what he can about it And we grow until we can never let go.
Friendship (An Almost-Poem) • Opuss № I