almost a friend

he was Shakespearean
in nature,
and by that I mean fully fleshed
out
in character.
there was no doubt
as to who he was, the role
he played.
bigger than life,
and bigger, he thought,
in death,
but untrue.
how he drank and ate,
held
the table
with ribald tales,
each story came back
around to him.
boisterous, loud
and large.
stop me if you've heard
this one, which didn't matter,
because you were about
to hear it again.
he was the sun.
no lesser planet
was he,
no moon. no melting star,
at times he almost
seemed
like a friend.