Around The Corner

Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end,
Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,
And before I know it, a year is gone.

And I never see my old friends face,
For life is swift and terrible race,
He knows I like him just as well,
As in the days when I rang his bell.

And he rang mine but we were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men,
Tired of playing a foolish game,
Tired of trying to make a name.

“Tomorrow,” I say! “I will call on Jim,
Just to show that I’m thinking of him.”
But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,
And distance between us grows and grows.

Around the corner, yet miles away,
“Here’s a telegram sir,” “Jim died today.”
And that’s what we get and deserve in the end
Around the corner, a vanished friend.

~by Charles Hanson Towne (1877-1949)
written in 1900

Thanks for bringing this poem to my attention, Marlene.

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My friend
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