Around the corner

Around the corner I have a friend
In this great city that has no end,
Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,
And before I know it, a year is gone

And I never see my old friends face,
For life is a swift and terrible race,
He knows I like him just as well
As in the days when I rang his bell, And he rang mine.
We were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men.
Tired of playing a foolish game,
Tired of trying to make a name.
“Tomorrow” I say “I will call on John”
“Just to show that I’m thinking of him”

But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,
And distance between us grows and grows.
Around the corner!-yet miles away,
“Here’s a telegram sir-”
“John died today.”
And that’s what we get and deserve in the end.
Around the corner, a vanished friend.

This poem from Henson Towne was given to me by my friend Kai way back in college. She said this was our poem coz we’ve been in and out of touch throughout the course of our friendship. We’ve been friends for 20 years or so. It started when we were still neighbors and we play with Barbie dolls wearing our ruffled undies. What made my friendship with Kai unique is that, we are alike personality wise. Maybe the fact that we are both Sagittarian and are born 3 days apart had something to do with it. We often found ourselves thinking the same line of thoughts. There was this time when I gave her a copy of the lyrics of the Power of 2 by the Indigo Girls coz it reminded me so much of our friendship and she was also planning on giving me a CD of it…yeah I know pretty sappy and corny stuffs. We are sentimental fools, writing each other letters and cards and giving each other stufss even when we attend the same school. Anyways, we are each other’s spiritual advisers’ coz we always help sort each other’s plight.
But then a time came when the letters and corny stuffs, stopped as we both became immersed in our own worlds. Then suddenly she came back making her presence felt again. When we talked, I felt like I don’t know her anymore. I felt abandoned coz she wasn’t there for me like before. I thought heck, I have a lot of other friends out there and she has hers too. Life can go on w/o each other. She made an effort to establish communications again but my stubborn pride prepared me to shut that door and turn my back on those years of friendship. However, as I was sorting through old stuffs, I saw that poem above and those memories of our friendship came rushing back to me.
I realized that my bday is fast approaching and I couldn’t afford to lose one gift
Seriously, I realized that sometimes when somebody is not visible in our lives; it doesn’t mean that they care less esp. with true friends.
BUT a reminder to those not-so-visible-anymore-friends, we should never fail to keep in touch. No excuses really with all those medium of communication available nowadays(email,snail mail,sms message,phone calls,Chikka,Friendster etc2x) 

We should really let our friends or loved ones know that

we are still here…

and still care.