Losing Dan

A Story by Alfred Kukitz

losing a friend to agent orange

Losing Dan

It was the exchange of poems with Dan that really deepened our souls among the words, spaces and ideas falling on each other's eyes. The give and take in the blessed sanctity of friendship. If a shared existence among former military persons had not tied a noose of excitement around our necks, surely then, the age of two old farts must have been the secret recipe for lasting enjoyment.

Our introduction to each other became endless. Each word between us felt like old time friends gathered around a campfire endlessly spinning tales of foolishness and beauty. There was no escaping the addiction we had for each other. We coasted on a plane of joy like silly boys gliding down the mountain.

I still find my eyes looking for him, his email filled with poetic utterances, that ribbon of excitement meandering through each verse. What I once had, that enveloped me in the slavery of our age, death had consumed. I am only here alone among memories that lay a sweetness on my brow and in my silence come to find the Dan I loved so well.