Fickle creatures are they,
these torch-bearers,
these time-grubbers,
these "friends".
Always wanting your company,
or at least the entertainment.
Always wanting an ear to wail to,
a shoulder to cry on,
an arm to lean on.
Always prodding you towards what you can't have,
pushing you to do what you don't want,
and probing secrets that you'd prefer stay that way.
Always wanting you to drop everything
to listen to their problems
and give advice that they never follow.
Always wanting time that you don't have.
Always wanting something from you.

But, oh, so fickle!
For if you turn around
to have a private life for just a moment,
turning back, you find them gone.
There are no messages on the phone,
no invitations in your mailbox or inbox,
no cars in the driveway honking for you to hurry.
Ironic.
All this while you thought that it was they who needed you,
but really it was you who needed them -
and still do.
Now you want the sympathetic ear,
the free advice,
the support,
that bond of closeness.
And Lady Fate has dealt you the same blow -
now they have no time for you.

Fickle? Maybe not so much.
For while they are having their private lives,
you build your social life up once more,
on different ground, with different pillars.
But one question -
when they turn back to you,
will you drop this new life
to run back to them,
when they did no such favor for you?

Fickle?
No, not really so much at all.

06/18/2001

Posted on 09/20/2002
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