In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Delayed Contact.”

The friends I have, I have by chance.
I mostly met them in the day
When vagaries of circumstance
Threw friends and friendships in my way

Like school, where most society
Unites against the enemy
Of expectations, mores and rules
Which we left off as made for fools

So those who shared my acid bent
Fell in as friends by accident.
Back then, I found them risible,
Now mostly, they’re despicable –

As I am, sadly, sometimes, too –
Yet all of us are still good friends;
It’s decades hence, and here we are
Although, how friendly, it depends.

Since only one of them has kids,
My life to them seems strange and weird:
While some of theirs seem trivial
Or shocking, beyond doubt —

But still, we laugh when in a room,
With different morals, different tastes;
I think that if we just met now
That I would be the odd man out

I hated adolescence and
I’m so glad that it ended:
And yet to it and circumstance
I owe that I’m befriended

And so I’m grateful anyway.
For life, it loves to throw a curve:
I’m grateful for my weirdo friends
Who’re still much more than I
Deserve