I met her in the summer time

and like a summer flower.

She filled the room with colour,

to brighten up an hour.

 

We laughed and talked together

in her salty sailors tongue.

That first hour was a pleasure

of a friendship just begun.

 

Till now the autumn of our lives.

When storms have bent a stem of two.

With wit and laughter hours pass,

in friendship tested true.

 

The winter, we will greet one day,

if not with pleasure, then a smile.

For life has given us a way

to enjoy the last long mile.

David Garlick, Victoria, 1986