Friendship lost
Totally unintentional,
a chance remark by Friend#1
strikes Friend#2 as a sharp low blow,
right in the solar plexus.
Winded, eyes pricking with tears,
Friend#2 retaliates, counter-punches, referring
to a particularly heinous past misdeed of Friend#1.
Momentarily stunned, Friend#1 hits back,
raising a case of bad faith by Friend#2 from years before,
an uppercut that really gets up Friend#2’s nose.
Red mist then settles over both friends,
haymakers of allegations hurled in each direction.
A slugging slanging match, toe to toe.
Blows traded in the form of slights, real or imagined,
stored up over many years of friendship.
Things said best left unsaid,
they part, both deeply wounded.
Blood on the carpet of their friendship,
stains no amount of apology can remove.