For Alex

True Friendship is not bound by borders
or vanquished by the swells and billows of vast oceans,
nor is it confined to specific time--
Oh! I dare not call it "friendship"
that could by such temporal trappings be deferred.

For Friendship is love in its original shape,
and does not shake or tremble at trials, distance, tempests,
no, nor even death,
for all these are only of the body.
But love is the essence of the soul and fiber of the spirit,
and, in true friendship,
our souls have been united through the flame of love,
bound through the One Who is Love,
and nothing in earth or heaven
has any power to quench or destroy
the unity that exists forever between friends.

In your travels, travails, and triumphs
I will be with you,
as He Who is within all who love Him is with you,
and you with me. Thus,
there is no separation, no breach, no loss,
not truly, for our spirits hold hands
in the invisible realms beyond the sky,
beyond our sight.

And though my eyes may never on this side of life
behold your smiling face, or my ears
never your kind, warm words hear after this,
they are imprinted in my memory, a treasure
to keep always on my journey.

Then that day will come,
that glorious Day with no end,
when, after waiting,
our spirits that never ceased the friendship we have found
shall once more be clothed, but this time
with undying light,
and we shall walk side by side, glorifying
the One Who, by being the Friend of us,
granted me the privilege
of being able to forever call
you my friend as well.