Two Friends

The ones I visited in California…

A. ….Basketball player, Sitarist,

Promoter, Salesman, Educator…

bouts of depression over the years…

creative mind on a threadbare

treadmill…meaning no traction.

Physically imposing, likes to look 

tough…his likes are as abrupt as 

his dislikes…polite, but direct.

Like all Germans (ancestry) wants

to keep his heart hidden… the

sensitive see it.

J.  …doctor for years…DEA thought

they had a target and brought him 

down…lost his license…marshaled

his whole educated, immigrant son's,

Sissyphisian, stubbornness to get it

back so he can quit the profession.

The path well taken….a rut of a life,

in a way, but he can still play Scott

Joplin…still gets the joke, he

never grew up.

They both exhibited a bit of angry 

old man….not grumpy…slightly

impatient…not distressingly so…

certainly not for me. I was happy 

to see we could navigate together

the waters of our lives, even for 

a short time.