The eve of Christmas Eve I saw
A friend and didn't recognize
Him at first; though we waved, through all
The customers and enterprise
I let him move on. The surprise
Hit me soon, and I knew him then.
I could see he hurt in his eyes;
I know you'll thrive again my friend.

It's been some time so just to jaw
With you a sec gives me a rise. 
You looked good but told me how raw
Life's been treating you: employment-wise
Hung out to dry with heavy sighs.
Should you ever need an ear, send
Your sorrows here; we'll strategize.
I know you'll thrive again my friend.

Three times and more feel free to draw
As many hugs as you surmise
You need from me. A job will call
On someone with a heart your size.
I know from how we've fraternized 
You're a good man, and soon an end
To this current low will arise.
I know you'll thrive again my friend.

What temporary loss belies:
Time will come you'll again ascend.
Hold onto your smile; it's a prize.
I know you'll thrive again my friend.

What if actions rise up swaying
And, unsure, outreach without base,
With conceit so hungry, baying
For the bloody chance to give chase
On acclaim? The footprints one's paced
On the sand eroding mutely
Needn't overwrite sublime grace
Resting soft beneath the fruit tree.

They continue unallaying,
As when children by a footrace
Start spontaneously playing
For their tiny glory. Come waste
Or success we keep the same taste:
Fame, and to be noticed truly
For our strife, to find our own face
Resting soft beneath the fruit tree.

Growing from the sands, surveying,
Some within, without; a sad case:
Fears of stasis and of staying
Hands and minds unlearned, a far place
Distant from community's brace;
Knowing ever so acutely
That we seek mirages not space
Resting soft beneath the fruit tree.

When they wither will a dumb trace 
Still persisting resolutely
Maybe find another someplace
Resting soft beneath the fruit tree?

The rain falls on the pond of Avion;
The turtles' armor shimmers black like glass;
And softly does the egret trace beyond
The surface, then at once without a splash
It pierces down to plumb the algal cache,
To fish for flies, to skewer and to poke
Around the sparkling mirror on its pass
Where it evaporates in midnight's cloak.

And ever little ripples there respond
In quietest alarm to breaching mass,
Alert to anything that enters on
Its small domain. Beside its ebb the grass
Is pointing from its soily hilts en masse
Amidst the rain, the verdant warmth awoke
A misty cloud that shields the low morass
Which then evaporates in midnight's cloak.

The tree's patina'd leaves the wind absconds
With for a moment, then the next it casts
Them down upon the fissures of the pond;
And on the bank they anchor next the class
Of ducks with plumage darkly flashing brass
Beneath the scattered moonlight where the croaks
Of frogs disperse in every droplet's flash
And then evaporate in midnight's cloak. 

A waking dream that plays out past the ash
My cherry grows while on my nighttime smoke;
Our gloaming glows together til the last
When I evaporate in midnight's cloak.