MY GOOD FRIEND

is a meat and potatoes kind of guy

who doesn’t know he’s a saint.

He gets his hands dirty in the muck

and mire of clogged sewers and sinks.

He swims with sharks, but emerges unscathed.

Selfless as an EMT volunteer, he’s a friend to call

when you’re stranded in the middle of the night

with a car that won’t start.

He not only gives you the shirt off his back,

he will gladly give you the heft of his back

to heave sandbags that keeps the deluge at bay.

His humanity banishes fear with a pair

of hands that never made a fist.

His presence of lovingkindness

absorbs toxins like a grove of trees

cleanses pollutants that poison the air.