For Joe and Ernie

how long has it been

10

15

20

25 years

it is amazing how time passes

and inexorably

takes us along with

down many paths

through many moments

that 

moment by moment become a lifetime

of failures and successes

lessons learned

and perhaps not learned

We have earned these gray hair

we "boys of summer"

who 44 years ago 

graduated from high school

young

and brash

and full of ourselves

full of dreams and expectations

now we sit

and talk

of times long ago

of friends living

and friends dead

we talk about life

and death

and struggle 

and faith

we remember

and laugh

and find that after all these years

we are still

friends