For anyone who ever ducked a date
by claiming some unwellness or demand
you can’t avoid, for those who fabricate
a social lie, you’re bound to understand
when someone else is doing it to you.
He says a flight will agitate his ears,
a drive will hurt his heels, but here’s what’s true –
he’s chronically depressed and teems with fears.

The only clue when he was young was wrath.
Adventurous and social then, we watched
him raging as he aged. He blazed a path
to idle lone retreat, and so he botched
the opportunities to love and grow.
My former friend let all intentions go.