When friends meet, is it not common to share a lunch? If on a fair weather day we chance to meet on an outing, to some overlook or formation of natural beauty, would it be so unusual that I, having come to write, and you, having come to read, should resolve to carry about our separate tasks in quiet company? Who could cry afoul such mundane happenstance? In what mind could a few minutes of conversation over sandwiches and an hour examining pages of paper take on more meaning? What mind indeed. If you found yourself on a steamer to Calcutta with a packed back and no plan, would it be so odd to find a fellow traveler? If we learned to deal Whist like Phileas Fogg and passed away every night aboard in cards and conversation, who could blame us or see it as un-seemly? If on reaching land we went the same way, happen as it may day after day, who could be to blame?

Lucas German

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/innocent-enough/