Wanting to be someone's friend isn’t a badge of dishonor
Is it?
Or some sort of sin with sugar on it is it?
If it is then
I wouldn’t know where to start or really where to repentantly begin
in my efforts to fix this friendly pickle
This amazing circle of people and friends I am in

and really why would I want to even feign dissatisfaction or pretend
That I don’t find enjoyment
enlightenment
support
even when I do from time to time suspend belief
Retorts when needed
Reports when the gossip is completed
Why would I?

Now, I offer you the gift of friendship
My prefriend
My almost confidant
My acquaintance
My acquiescent sister not akin
Not because you asked
But because I offer in earnest
To stoke the fire of each other's dreams
And the embers of our mutual furnace
To strike out against the ones who would burn us
If only in our minds
To provoke the unmotivated
And put a fire under their kinds
To invoke the rule of thumb
Never looking behind
To hold at bay the relentless

Like a hero
And like a friend is supposed to
©2009 J. K. Bradford