Tribute

Friend and foreigner, this above all I have wanted:
to pay my respects, the dearest, most heartfelt respects,
in sixty-five years since I took you for granted.

Affable ogre, standing with the feet planted
in sublime assurance where I keep all my effects,
friend and foreigner, this above all I have wanted.

You block out a freeness of being and then, nothing daunted,
announce offhand a history of my defects,
in sixty-five years since I took you for granted.

You shambling catastrophe, who would be enchanted
to make your acquaintance? Yet to unite our prospects,
friend and foreigner, this above all I have wanted.

Today as a dutiful birthday chorus is chanted,
I thank you for the dark presence that protects,
in sixty-five years since I took you for granted.

My savage chemical base, why am I haunted
by the ghost of a silver word that links, that connects?
Friend and foreigner, this above all I have wanted,
in sixty-five years since I took you for granted.