19

19

I went to see a friend the other day.
I had not seen him since we were teens, and in the throes of
Crossing that threshold, from boyhood to manhood
As I walked to the meeting place, thoughts raced through my mind,
Like the news flashes, on an electronic billboard.

My thoughts went back to our scouting days, how we labored, played
And fought together, as partners, friends and brothers against the world
I thought of summers spent in the green Appalachian hills,
And a rite of passage, the "ordeal" endured together, for the Order of the Arrow.
A dark and lonely night, spent in silence and solitude in those foothills,
To commune with nature, to find our "spirit" and acceptance

When I arrived at our meeting place, I searched until I found him.
While I had aged, he was still young and unchanged.
He was tall, ramrod straight, fit and with that perpetual smile,
That cheered you up, no matter what. I looked at him in my mindseye, saying nothing

I stared at my reflection, in that long black marble wall, reached out to feel his name etched into it.
I knew that he was not lonely, but was in good company, with thousands of other names of our generation.
Forever young, alive and in my mind, 19, as I walked away from that long black wall,
I realized, that we are still walking point, on that longest tour of all, called life,
And counting the days, until our freedom flight back to that world, when we were 19

Pat Saunders, March 31, 2001