By Jim Hagarty
“People are funny,” my friend said to me.
“In what way?” I replied, somewhat nervously.
“Well, they’ll always be nice to your face,” she said.
“When really, they wish you were buried and dead.”
“What brought this on?” I asked, so timidly.
I worried her remarks were all meant for me.
“Did someone you know say an unkind word?
“Something they didn’t know you had heard?”
Her face became grey as she turned towards me.
“I used to be blind but I’ve learned to see.
“My best friend is saying some terrible things.
“About me, and what she says really stings.”
“She says I’m dishonest, tells people I’m cheap.
“And then when I see her, she says not a peep.
“I just can’t believe she’d ever betray
“My trust, but she has, and I’m in dismay.”
Relieved that the guilty one couldn’t be me
I suggested I thought that it would never be
Unfair to go out and make a new friend
Cause this one’s two-facedness probably won’t end.
“That does make some sense,” said the poor, wounded girl,
“But she is my only friend in the world.”
“Then your world isn’t big enough yet,” I replied.
“There’s a better friend waiting to be by your side.”
“Sometimes we hang to a buddy too long
“There are others who know all the words to our song.
“They show up when we least expect them, sometimes,
“Until then we just need to bide our sweet time.”
She thought about that and then turned away.
She met her new best friend the very next day.
It’s not easy to let go of people we’ve known.
Sometimes for a while we will be all alone.
But being alone is not something to fear.
Out of nowhere, sometimes, a new best friend appears.
Out of gratitude, my friend went and bought me a book.
While I was just glad to be let off the hook.
