"fought for friendship found"

"fought for friendship found"
for anyone who has ever found relationships to be....complicated.
~L. Page

a rhythmic tide of mandate and grace,
at once the blessing and the curse
as one has made demand upon
another, and so true in reverse.

building into every moment
but a solid whispering
beside. the fragile bulwark
breaks the sole, retreating

chime of pulling back, away.
course charted to and fro,
clash or crash or clamor
cast out, two now to oppose.

do not argue with this ledger,
dust and dirt yet diamond still
disclosed in moments tender,
dear to the heart and kept until

every one to which, compared,
each measured against the next,
ending by way of demanding more,
entrapped by desire and perplexed.

forget me not if you should wander
for a better one, if you set me by.
friend and brother gone tomorrow.
frame my sorrow with the high

guilt, left not behind by one, yet
gripping without mercy the other,
given always hope without
guarantee of strength or tether.

how could two be selfless in
hidden agendas so well disguised?
he and she or she and she or he, so
held sway in noble enterprise.

indiscretion breeds contempt
in all by what is too familiar,
idling at an intersection, never
"interest for its own sake" killed here.

jester with his bells worn ringless,
jovial today, death knell tomorrow.
just this once, one wish for real,
join the sweet sound of the swallow.

kindling for a friendship passion;
keep devotion, give me rather
kites and children, princes and
kingdoms, but they betray the matter,

leaving in their wake, distrust and
lust for revenge (if we have our way),
lest the offender go unpunished
let's be wiser next time, beware!

man's inhumanity to man began at
most with such innocent intent,
made the more repulsive by
"mere human" malicious accident.

not today, dear, haven't you heard?
never cross a princess with a dragon;
nine of ten you'll not get her back!
need to set the moat with flotsam

or some other vain distraction
on the whim of the one inside, whose
ornamental movements rarely resemble
objective, reasoned self-defense.

parade my minstrels, oh so clever,
pouncing on each opportunity to
play act, though it tells their own
particular secret weapon: Vicissitude.

query the dawn of our new day,
quell the uncertainty we've expressed,
quaint though our friendships be,
quenched as fire by water's thrust....

Rest now. haven't we done enough, our
rhythmic tide of mandate and grace?
rushing in and again upon each other,
rutting as without faith or face!

Still. reconsider our options
so we do not run aground for waste,
stuck through as if hoisted on our own
swords for lack of selflessness

Tranquil. remember what was
then our goal and ambition,
trusting one another before such
trepedation aggressively crept in.

until we have faces, my friend -- or
unity of mutual purpose sought --
undeniable hope remains!
upward the charge of oneness caught,

vanity defeated, drowned, deceased,
vacant stares look up from graves of
Victory! isolation thwarted and
verily, we have - this time - saved love.

with but one glancing blow, how easy
was the realization, once discovered?
we must die daily to self and consider,
with care, better than ourselves all others....

yesterday's battles belong behind. so,
yet a solid whispering
yielding tender kindnesses; thus!
you may be not a jester but a King,

zealous for the blessing and wonder of forever.

(c) 2008 Leah Randelle