Fret not my friends for me if I withdraw,
Or take less pleasure in your company
And am not found where once I used to be;
Nor wonder that I am not as before.
For true it seems that I am changed, not you,
You are ever as you were, or better;
Yet I would not be to time a debtor,
Or never change with time when change is due.
Time’s slaves in staying never stay the times,
In ever changing ever stay unchanged.
Nothing changes where nothing is exchanged,
Where nothing is refreshed nothing redeems.
What if I am no more, are we friends yet?
If friends, no cause, if none, none still, to fret.
Patrick Leighton Forse