Friend Or Foe? (Poetry)

“In friendship (age-stiff fingers wrote)
thought’s warning knife might tease the throat
yet it’s the enemy’s sly kiss
we shrug off — keen to soon dismiss
the revolution in one’s mind —
What friend is cruel? What foe proves kind?”

As politics of nations change
love’s fickle borders rearrange
re-colour blue old passion’s red
re-drawing lines — the marriage bed
a nomansland where shadows steal
the air grown chill — the night unreal

Those understandings habit placed
and crumpled maps — the names erased
are lost to time and memory
the promise broken carelessly
and nought survives the sudden shock
of shifting sand where once was rock

Some friendships ebb while others flow
some flounder in the undertow
too few withstand the strains of life
the kiss cuts deeper than the knife
sharp words more deadly than the blade
in sacrifice — all trust betrayed

*****

It’s sobering — the crushing thought
in friendship’s mouth such lies were wrought
no ties of blood were measured stronger
but truth will out — we’re friends no longer