“What Are Friends For?”

Southern accents, smell of pines,
Two-lane roads with no lines.
A piece of heaven where we lived,
He never took more than he gived.

An entrepreneur who built his own,
Gracious and loving with a soft tone.
Papa was his name and nothing more,
The man who believed in “what are friends for?”

Always standing half his size,
He confronted my spiritual demise.
Opening my eyes to the gift of Life,
Pops warned me of Satan’s knife.

Always a lesson to be learned,
He never wavered from his word.
In his heart family resided,
For each of us he provided.

Business, his field of expertise,
For success he would not cease.
Teaching me how to run a business,
In which Christ was never amiss.

Half for effort and half for attitude,
What you got paid relied on your mood.
Hard work’s value he shared with me,
This ethic now everyone can see.

My career is still young in age,
Even now as I turn a new page.
The lessons you taught me still remain,
And contribute to my business fame.

In my childhood, I had to grow,
Becoming a man was no easy flow.
You weaned me from immaturity,
And taught me the value of purity.

A gentleman today who can find?
One that is loving, gentle, and kind.
These values Pops instilled in me
Are even still who I try to be.

One thing I tend to dwell on the most
Is in relationships never coast.
A man of valor, a woman of virtue,
Should never settle for less than true.

This spiritual mix God commands,
Pops held it dearly in his hands.
The mountain of lessons which were meek,
This one alone stands at the peak.

Watching Papa’s every decision,
I begin to deeply value life’s mission.
That phrase bites me in my core,
I’ll never forget “what friends are for.”

This poem captures personal experience with a grandfather figure, as well as, relating to others who have or had similar relationships.