Bonds Of Youth

I lost a treasure cent by cent

Scarcely noticing I spent

Childhood dreams, secrets shared

Ramming free, no one cared

Side by side in bowling pits

Caddying for the local rich

Lifting weights, playing ball

Elvis parties, we did it all

Ah, the days we learned to drive

Canoe atop, girls beside

Little cash, but we were free

To forge each daily memory

I’ve searched them all, but I can’t say

Who was first to step away

He pursued the Air Force life

Myself to college, soon a wife

Life got in the way so much

Moves and jobs and kids and such

Shackled by our own ambition

Never more those two kids fishin’

Several visits, a call or three

Then he was lost in Tennessee

Battered by time and things I’ve done

As obits named friends one by one

I searched for him to no avail

His folks were gone, he left no trail

Until one day on the internet

I found a clue, he’d not gone yet

I wrote, recalling deed and scheme

When we were brave enough to dream

Found at last, his answer said

He’d heard that I was long since dead

He told of his missing years

Loved ones lost, the joys, the tears

Then these words, precious, yet sad:

You’re still the best friend I ever had

--Johnny Paycash