Lynn Summer called me up today. I said, "How long you going to stay?" He said, "I'm leaving right away, Inside an hour or two." I said, "Of course, you're coming out?" "Well that," he said, "I greatly doubt; I've got some things to see about -- I'm only passing through. "But, say, on second thought," he said, "I haven't anything ahead As necessary as to tread The threshold of a friend. So ask the wife to set a place, And tell the boy to wash his face -- I'm coming out in any case Before the evening's end." We often come to town, I fear, Where friends are old and friends are dear, And never tell them we are here, And silently depart. Yet, of the business we attend, What brings us half the dividend, What more important than a friend, Investments of the heart? Good friends, wherever you may be, I hope as good a friend as he You are, with his philosophy Of friendship ever true. For life's a journey, mile by mile; I hope you take the time to smile, The time to stop a little while And visit, passing through. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CAMELOPARD by HILAIRE BELLOC THE LITANY OF THE DARK PEOPLE by COUNTEE CULLEN MARIA CALLAS, THE WOMAN BEHIND THE LEGEND* by MADELINE DEFREES THE SEMANTICS OF FLOWERS ON MEMORIAL DAY by BOB HICOK SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: JAMES GARBER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |