Friends, Passion And Friends No More Poem by Lonnie Hicks

I have seen Passion Storm
and sweep away obstacles.

Did Romeo and Juliet's
passions storm;
such that only death could
their passions stay?

Witness raging desire;
hearts bursting;
love amok;
mouths rampant;
where loins ache.

I have seen these tempests blow
seating themselves
in life's centers
swirling down among
those of us who love
with every passion mote
we possess;
gladly we give it
don't we?

For to fall into passion
is to become possessed
of the sweet possession
that tingles the soul
and massages
all our secret places.

But still,
who has not seen passion too,
prove too strong for friends
who slept together for the first time
to find passion imagined
is not passion gained;
both then
sometimes lose
both passion's touch
and friendship's solace-
both equal sweet
to the tongue-
both bitter in the mouth's regrets.

Friendship goes sometimes
tamped down by passion's regrets;
trailing away in the misty past
'good friends'
making love receding.

Passion sometimes crushes
both passion and friendship
and these two hurl themselves
into the dark pit
where mistakes are kept.

Sad to have good friends
become passion's road-kill;
both lying by the side of the road;
still:
fresh quiverings,
while life's cars and trucks
lumber by
air rushing-
swooping both down
into the road side ravine,
where they lay side by side
for a road-side eternity.

Ah, sad I know.
But who will
trade passion's call
and forestall
it's sweet voice
chiming?

Next time,
we phoenix-like
grow new wings,
soar anew
which tells
us
passion is always
lifting its wings
and flying
sometimes too close
to the Sun.

But we
risk all again
don't we
for its call;
because that
is the way
we are built.