While You Were Sick

By Amy L. Chaves

January 4, 2000

(Dedicated to a friend who recently got sick)

"What lay between us -- the fone,

The messages between us -- the texts,

What kept us apart -- the distance,

What united us -- the friendship."

Text messages written in a frenzy,

In sullen silences I felt your suffering:

perhaps, your feverish body, wanting the cold

but couldn't let go of the heat,

must have passed, from limb to limb,

the desire to rest and the desire to move!

"The mind worries, the heart panics, the spirit sickens!

How great is the distance,

how incalculable the void

between our two fones!"

But deeper than the words in the text messages

Are found the care and the love of this friend

To her friend for life--her friend forever!

"So no matter the times spent

and the pre-paid cards bought--

you and I talk, and care,

And love, and share:

in sickness and in health--

How wonderful--we are friends for life!"

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