By

walking through this world

room to room to room

then home again

ask the favor of

your friendship

know that I am one

within the thousand.

If one hundred men

making do within this world

in city places

or the kindest country

fall down fighting for

your friendship

know that I am on the battlefield

amid the hundred.

If twenty men

who know and knew this world

from crested hills

to uncrowned valley

send letters breathing friendship

expect my letter soon

amid the twenty.

If one man

living in this too-grey world

running crooked roads

or pacing pavements

comes in need of friendship

be not amazed or disbelieve,

I am that one man.

If no one comes to you

carrying a new world

in his arms or at his back

in a rolling wagon

offering it to you out of friendship

know that I have been detained

but even now an on my way.

Still no one comes

to you within this world

when two dozen years

or half of that has passed

and you feel friendless

come and seek me out

for I'll be lifeless in a grave

and gone.

Perhaps you were hiding

or concerned with other

larger things

but know that while I lived