Leland Jamieson lives and writes in East Hampton, Connecticut. Recent and forthcoming works appear in numerous magazines. His first book of poems, 21st Century Bread, can be previewed and is available at www.jamiesonspoetry.com — along with streaming audio and video features, book reviews, reader and editor comments, and a free tutorial on writing contemporary formal verse, "You Rhyme It."

Friends

     by Leland Jamieson

       With thanks to our cairn terriers, Weftie and Liberty. For G.K.J., on May Day, 2008.

Walking our cairns we’ve hailed our neighbors here.
We wave. They wave. And there it fades. We count
no saving friendships. Maybe it’s folks fear
our strangeness. Eight years, now.  And they just mount.

When meeting folks we used to edge our way
around to, “Do you like to read? To write
a letter to the editor and weigh
in with your views?” (Head shakes. Nary a bite.)

Seventy-two, I guess we are invisible
to movers and shakers gracing the town.
Looking spaced-out, dressed absurdly, we’re risible —
unless we draw a deep, impatient frown.

We do meet minds, and hearts, in books — our ‘friends’.
But rare’s the book, for a social soul, that mends . . .

© 2009 Leland Jamieson