OLD FRIENDS/BOOKENDS 7 0

old friends

old friends

sat on their park bench like bookends 

a newspaper blowin' through the grass 

falls on the round toes 

of the high shoes

of the old friends

 

old friends 

winter companions, the old men 

lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sunset 

the sounds of the city sifting through trees 

settle like dust 

on the shoulders of the old friends

 

can you imagine us years from today 

sharing a park bench quietly?

"how terribly strange to be seventy" *

 

old friends 

memory brushes the same years 

silently sharing the same fear

 

time it was, and what a time it was, it was 

a time of innocence 

a time of confidences

long ago it must be 

i have a photograph 

preserve your memories 

they're all that's left you

simon and garfunkel, 1968, from the album, bookends.

kudos to ken, musicologist, for my remembering this song.... 

* riffing off of Shirley's chorus line, "isn't that strange ?"

listen to it here.

live from central park, 1981