My ear awakes. I turn and crane
My head turns eyes to seek the voice
Whose indeterminate refrain
Recalls me from the sidewalk’s noise.
So then I see the face I know
Though daydreaming, I passed him by
And let my recognition show
In sudden smile and brightened eye.
It’s thus I see his eyes look past
My bright, anticipating face,
And suddenly I am downcast;
For what’s between us is just space.
Yet just before I turn away
Shamefaced to where I had been bound,
His gaze drops down and bids me stay
Though unintended by his sound.
The one intended by his hail,
It seems they did not hear or heed,
And so, lest his attention fail,
It falls on me to see my need.
For words and eyes are now aligned;
So I am named, addressed as “friend,”
And know his focus was not blind
Though on another it attend.
As we collapse into a warm
And conversational embrace
He holds me back and grips my arm
So I will gaze into his face.
“I too know well just what it is
To be unknown when near a friend.”
The sympathy I feel is his
Invites me now; relax and mend.
So friendships are when true they be;
We snatch them up like fallen crumbs,
To praise the one whose love’s a plea
And cure against the shame that numbs.