Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FRIENDS, by MAUDE WILLIAMS MARTIN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FRIENDS, by                    
First Line: Friends,' she was saying, 'friends tell me...'
Last Line: Friends!
Subject(s): Friendship


"Friends," she was saying, "friends tell me..."
She was my partner at bridge, well dressed, overfed, complacent.
"All my friends in Chicago tell me..."
I tried to picture them, friends in swarms, droves, shoals,
Crowding about her, emulating, adoring.
Perhaps they loved her for her splendid certainties.
"Friends!"

"Friends in New York..." she tossed off airily.
Platoons of friends, fat friends, thin friends, tall friends, short friends,
Went goose-stepping about in my imagination.
"My friends in Palm Beach laugh at me..." she said.
My God! Why shouldn't they?
"Friends in New York, Palm Beach, Chicago!"

If she had boasted of the diamonds
That glittered on her fluttering white hands,
I should have thought her less preposterous.
Diamonds have little choice of hands to glitter on.
The price, the marketplace -- the thing is done.
But friends!
Friends! What happiness
If, after years of yearning effort
To penetrate the wall that shuts soul out from soul,
One might announce with half this woman's certainty,
"I have six friends, six loyal, trusting friends."

Well, this was not the time for laughter,
Though she would never dream what I was laughing at.
"Isn't she queer?" her lifted brows would say of me.
And so I led a spade,
And listened with slow-mounting anger
While our distinguished guest
Blasphemed against the sacred name of friendship.
"Friends in New York, Palm Beach, Chicago."
Friends!





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