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—
And now we are busy, tired men—
Tired with playing a foolish game;
Tired with 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 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.

- Henson Towne

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