Josie--By Jean Calkins--United States

Josie

     My thoughts return to one real childhood friend

     and wonder where life’s road has taken her.

     I tried to keep in touch, from time to time,

     but she was not a writer; frequent moves

     unraveled every cord we had attached.

     I know she is not far from her home base,

     while I am many hundred miles away.

     My fading memory does not recall

     her married name.  Her brothers all have moved;

     her sister’s married name is also gone.

     No family remains to offer clue.

     All I have left is memories of times

     I stayed with her throughout the lightning storms

     she feared, that fascinated me so much.

     We were the “Mutt and Jeff” of our school crowd,

     she short and fair, I the tall, gawky one,

     and for a time, we knew a special bond

     that even silent years cannot deny.

Jean, at 82, has been writing poems since she was 18. For 25 years she published a popular poetry quarterly of up to 100 pages, with a subscribership of nearly 500. Illness in 1986 ended the magazine. She currently publishes, by email, a 2-page monthly of clean humor. Contact her at joker31277@yahoo.com