Slaying Of An Old Friend Poem by Paul Larmour

The grass was greener then
Now it's black
The grass was softer then
Now it's hard
You're still here
Brittle, bent
You're youth spent
Anchored here, you grow on
I uprooted, grow elsewhere
But one time we rode the sun
With lithe like limbs you lifted me to the clouds
To stalk the giant
To spy the whale
You would talk the summers out
And silent winters keep
And spring would wake you up
Bursting, budding, chattering with the birds
The sun warmed air dressed your limbs
Shone you bright
Widened your eye
Filled your soul
You had a soul
You had the light
Across your boughs golden spears would lay
From every sun -filled ray
And i would swing on your cradling arm
You took the weight and let me soar
Under sheltering boughs i would dodge the rain
Hide and shoot the red indian
And lay against your skin
Smooth skin, milky deepness
From my bedroom window i would look you in the eye
And say goodnight
You stood the watch
Kept the eye
Framed the moon
Caught the sigh
Do you my friend
Remember me
Trace my smile
Catch my tone
I've come back
To sit awhile
To say goodbye
Against your skin
Remembering
When you were you
And i was i
When your song filled limbs laced the sky
When hid the thrush in your hands
When you hid the squirrel in your heart
But now no swing hangs down
No laughter sounds
Lonely, limp your limbs no longer line the blue
Your milky skin the greenest hue
And sorrowful sad this is to me
The developing dealers of death they come
On this beltaine day the 1'st of may
They come to slay
To scar the earth
To take a life
And tear out, to fell the tree
But you know you were more than that to me