Colin F. Jones

FRIENDS I’VE NEVER MET

I’ll warrant he’s like a lion without a claw,
Inside a cage not needful of a door
A warrior without a weapon of effect;
The bolder drunk none bother to eject!
The Bantam Rooster being brave though he is old,
Less able than his foolishness is bold.
Ah! ‘Tis but an image that I see within my glass,
Of a feeble framed disintegrating mass,
Of scars and lines and veins pronounced aloft,
Where wrinkling skin covers muscle soft.
With active mind I measure still with youth,
Lost capabilities for which I have no proof.
Yet there is nothing in my life that I regret,
Except perhaps the friends I’ve never met.