Meet My Guest, Gentleman Jack Poem by Herbert Nehrlich

Tonight the conversation is
let's say productive,
and somewhat lively,
all words are spoken
with fleeting smiles,
that do recur
and are
true testimony
to pleasant company.
What would we be,
in this triste world
without our friends
and their kind words,
their deeds
and songs
and patient ears.
I now must tell
about my friend
who visits me
on lonely days,
I do not know
how he decides
when I would like
his company.
Our faces light
as if a ray
of sun had come
to open doors.
We meet again
in gentle pleasure.
His name is Jack,
he has been called
a gentleman
and that he is.
He comes from stock
that forged the state
of southern lands,
called Tennessee.
He likes his ice,
from waters pure
and we will have to
leave it there.
We must get back
to ourselves.
It is what counts
in this gray world.