Losing A Friend

The loss of a friend or even an acquaintance is an odd happening

It’s a hollow, dull ache that comes and goes every now and then

Five minutes after life begins to go on you’re reminded that she’s no more

Snatches of conversations, snippets of convivial afternoons, memories of sharing a pot of tea and some laughter swirl around in your head again and again

And you ask yourself was there a sign somewhere that this connection that I had was to end sooner than later

The sorrow is strange and difficult to pin down

Different from when you lose kith and kin

It’s a reminder of your own mortality, your own finiteness

If it can happen to her, it can happen to me

A resounding reminder too that the things that we hold so dear, the cars, the clothes, the glitter and the shine

The quibbles and the squabbles, the fears and the worries, the envy and the longing

Just vanish in that moment, a certainty some day