Friends (Advice To My Children)

Few things will hurt you more Than the envy of old friends. Sometimes, their silence will reach you Across vast oceans. You will hear it, weighing In your own voice, asking why: why Is there time for all the distractions the world delivers But not for a word of concern. Sometimes their very praise will Hurt:"You must have been practising," or "You are definitely better than before,"as if you needed pity; Any success will hurt them, deeply: They will not forgive you easily: They will need to pity. They will need to speak. Sometimes their anger will brood for years: A joke or insult long forgotten - you thought - Will return in deep disguise As a snub, a lack of mention, a deliberate Stalling of affection, a dinner party without You, a vote placed Elsewhere. And if you should ever have a friend Who outshines you: Do not damn yourself With faint praise of her. Let her shining warm your heart And bring smiling to your deepest self. Do not begrudge her the tiny dazzling In which she danced; Share that moment, let it live in you both, Before it dies forever In the ordinariness which drowns us all.