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 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 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