Friendships Keep Us Alive
by Michael Doyle

Childhood friendship felt legendary
It was elevated like a sacred entity
As we engraved our initials in our minds
Certain we'd never leave it behind

Playing games and sometimes wasting time
Helped us come across the better rhymes
That became the memories held in glory
On behalf of our lives best stories

Faith in our small talk divulged our feelings
All the all-too-important senses sent reeling
As we created our culture and formed our bonds
Surfing at the beaches and fishing in ponds

All grown up into our everyday round of doubts
Sometimes, a heart wonders what happened to hangouts
Unhurried with nowhere to go but imaginative play
That made time far too short in our summer days

Even as adults, we can all use some time to play
Bringing those memories forward into life today
The theatrical sense of golden moments of affirmation
Creatively spill out as friendship's confirmation

The radical privilege of killing time creates connection
Like one last adolescent rebellion given invitation
Riffs lead one to another, expecting the unexpected
To allow our minds to unwind and our hearts not be neglected

Some have tried to give exuberance a sort of bad name
But doing this is to forget childhood and be quite lame
There on the pages that write themselves into history
Are the rituals that form into their needed complexity

And through this complexity comes a deep understanding
That provides perspective and, in life, becomes commanding
Providing emotional depth that may have started off a lark
But becomes something that leaves its genuine, heartfelt mark

(c) August 30, 2023  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved