An old friend

I met an old friend the other day.
The friend was visiting someone else
and they were shaking and barely able to speak.
The friend had changed their life in an instant,
but it was not a good change,
for the friend was fear,
fear of death,
fear of the unknown.
i met him once and did not like what it did to me.
Neither did my friends,
who tried to comfort me in difficult times.
i could not hear because, my old friend was shouting so loud.
Then i met death,
and for all that fear told me, he was not so scary,
as a matter of fact, he was beautiful
and i told fear to go away
and he did.