Losing New Friends

I dreamt about you last night
You were wearing purple silk
And your shoulders were exposed
You laughed

I remembered when we first met,
Bonded over warm white wine
And bitched about his second wife

I was his first
You would become his third

I like her, you told him
You invited us to your home
We laughed, he and I,
Friends I thought, new friends

I didn’t speak to you at your wedding
Not properly
I was a little envious,
It was so grand, so spectacular
He loved you so much

I read in the paper
That the terrible disease you thought you’d beaten
Had claimed you.

Three months to the day of your wedding
You’d gone

In my dream you laughed,
You’re alive I said.
Yes, it was a joke
But that’s so cruel, how could you?
You smiled; let’s get a drink, you said.

Then I woke up
And as the truth flooded my senses
The tears came back
And so my lost friend
I’ve thought of you all day.