Tribute to My Best Friend

From  my unpublished collection of poems, Boyhood from a Distance.....


Tribute

Growing up
there are many friends and
then some smaller number of
good friends and
then one best
friend

Mike Keefe was mine and
I was his

But Mike was mostly in the few-friends group because
of how he was put together

His face was mapped with freckles

Spiky red hair looked like
bubblegum was cut out of it by a mad mom

Ears didn't work right
so big button things in them
connected to
a cord dangling down
to a giant transmitter
in his shirt pocket and
the contraption fell
apart
when he ran

Words came out thick of tongue
or a little different
because he couldn't hear so well

All this
and you couldn't tell when he suffered
jokes and mocking because
he smiled when he couldn't hear and
he smiled when he was happy so
he smiled all the time

This early best friend
taught me

the value of looking deeper
into a person than looks
or quirks

To know and celebrate
deeper qualities

loyalty and humor
courage and forgiveness
smarts

There has been more to hold on over the years
from one best friend than my
teachers all put together