DEDICATION: To an old horse who didn't even look my way.

HELLO, OLD FRIEND
By John Herlihy

DEDICATTION:
To an old horse who didn’t even look my way.

Hello, old friend!
You are the first sign of life;
I have been walking all morning,
Even the birds give me no special warning,
Through mountains and valleys with pine trees rife,
Feeling thirsty, exhausted and the worse for wear,
On my own in the wilderness before meeting you, I swear.

What happened, old friend?
Dressed in a wooden saddle,
Nibbling on pine cones,
Without a care to skedaddle.
Have you been abandoned to the treachery of an onerous world?
I know the feeling with my own banner in life rudely unfurled,
To find myself in free fall over life’s cliff occasionally hurled.

Goodbye, old friend!
You are on your own;
To think your own contented thoughts,
To find joy in absolute silence and alone.
In the end, we need to make our own way through life,
No one is going to help us through destiny’s turmoil and strife;
The silence of the wilderness cuts through troubles like a knife.