I tease you about a friendship that ended
because, of course, I am a boor.
And because the mystery of a dumping,
long ago, has been solved.
The thrust of hostility
from a woman’s longtime friend, in their 80s.
Unprovoked. Abrupt. Painful and cruel.
I can see for myself how relationships end,
having blundered into their age group.
Like leaves dropping off trees in the fall.
Sometimes gently with a touch of kindness,
sometimes without ceremony. Impersonally
when "this number is no longer in service."
“Mail is no longer deliverable to this address."
For us, loving friendships are forever.
Perhaps separating our friendship from others.
With love missing or one-sided.
Or social relationships for appearances.
Like the woman wounded by relationship
with a money-obsessed social climber
moved not by love but by envy.
Holiday greetings become more meaningful,
more fun and satisfying for me as I age.
While for most of those I greet
it seems to be the opposite.
Tinting affect with melancholy,
but also relieving the weight of relationships
whose time has come.
You are teased away from your grief
and from the weight of what’s no longer there.
That you might share in the delicacy of aging.
The beauty of a season when friendships
that graced a lifetime turn color and fall.