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,
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.

~ Charles Hanson Towne