Best of the Net

Sarah Russell

I’m thrilled to be one of 6 poets nominated by Poetry Breakfast for a Best of the Net award. My thanks to editor Kay Kestner for the honor. To read all of the wonderful poems Kay nominated, go to https://poetrybreakfast.com/2023/07/16/poetry-breakfasts-best-of-the-net-nominations/

Here’s my poem that was nominated.

Friends

I heard her story on the plane from Pittsburgh
to LA, smiled politely, shut my laptop, listened,

nodded. She was going to meet a childhood friend,
discovered on Facebook after sixty years. I walked

with her to the terminal, took her arm on the escalator,
felt her excitement and her faltering age.

When they saw each other, arms reached out,
and I was forgotten in their greeting. They didn’t hug,

but held the other’s face gentle in their hands,
tears in their eyes. There would be time for memories,

photos of children and grandchildren, husbands now dead.
But for now, they stood close, reading lifetimes in lines

and furrows—refuge, intimacy, secrets and confessions,
first kisses and heartbreak. I searched my mind for a friend

like that, someone so close we’d need no words if we
should meet again. Then I headed toward baggage claim.

15 thoughts on “Best of the Net”

  3. Well worthy of any and all rewards! Excellent poem capturing the moment perfectly and the ending? Of what an ending! Love your work!

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  5. Thanks for sharing the well-deserved good news. I’d read that poem and enjoyed it before. It would always have touched me, but going to my 50th high school reunion one year late due to COVID makes me even more sentimental about old friends from the past.

    Alarie Tennille alariepoet.com

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