--

Hello old friend.

Hello old friend.

If I'm honest, (and of what I can do, that's really best)

I haven't been the companion I should have been.

This venture, this friendship, is as much for my benefit as it is yours

and--

I've found myself wanting--absent, e'en.

Hello old friend.

I want to thank you for always being here,

when I need to get something off my chest--

here--

when it's way too late (early) to claim decency (or sanity)--

here--

to agree, or disagree, but always enlighten--

here--

hello old friend.

If I've been absent, I have not forgotten you.

I think of you often,

yet I find that if I spend too much time with you

I take you for granted and then . . .

I forget how important you are.

Every reunion only gets warmer,

and I have to thank you from the bottom of my soul.

Thanks, old friend.