What is a Friend?

what is a friend to you?

All day,
The word “Friend”
Twisted and twirled
Around in my head.

I try to remember the last time
I called someone a friend
But nothing rings a bell.

I have no definition
Of what that word means.
I hear and see it used,
Tossed everywhere,
To everyone, anyone.

The friends I've had over the years,
Were never friends. 
They were just people I hung out with,
People I knew from school,
Up to college
People who never truly knew me. 

But lately
I’ve been observing my mother
With her friends from years ago

How they actively continue 
To be a part of each other’s lives,
How they’re always there for one another
Through crisis and sickness,
Through the ordinary and the awful.

How they still go out of their way 
To gather every once in a while,
To catch up on each other’s lives.

And I think that’s true friendship:
No matter how much time passes
Or where life takes them,
They’d always find time for each other
Actually care, and show up for one another.