Around the Corner

Around the corner I have a friend,

In this great city that has no end;

Yet days go by and weeks rush on,
And before I know it, a year is gone,
And I never see my old friend’s face.

For life is a 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. We were younger then,

1Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking (New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1952), 210-211. 2 Haddon Robinson, “On Target,”’ Focal Point, quoting from David Smith, The Friendless Arnerican Male.

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 am thinking of him.”
But tomorrow comes—and tomorrow goes,
And the 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.