Friendship Poem by Alec de Candole

LIFE'S wheel runs back; and back Time rolls his page,
That we may read where once we read before,
For one sweet day : the old wine, more rich with age.
For this brief space is ours to taste once more.
Dear God ! how sweet it was, how sweet to taste
The joy of friendships old, yet ever new,
To pause, and there bid stand the years that haste,
So many as they pass, in all so few.
Grasp hands once more, let eyes meet loving eyes.
Ere to the future and the dark we go,
Then part ; yet still, whatever fates arise.
We'll hope to meet again the souls we know.
Ay, somewhere — or the world's a he indeed —
Our souls shall find the old friends, the old love, they need.