Reflections of a Man's Heart

. . .
Friendship can be simple,
like the pillow of a horseshoe's lucky curve
above a door where it's needed.

"Here", I said to my friend when he was dying.
"Here", he replied.

There was nothing more to ask of one another,
though we spoke a while longer,
words like river pebbles, some black, some white,
wrapped in a handkerchief's tied-together purse.
. . .

- Jane Hirshfield, Given Sugar, Given Salt