Around the Corner

by Charles Hanson Towne

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 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.
"To-morrow," I say, "I will call on Jim
"Just to show that I'm thinking of him."
But to-morrow comes -- and to-morrow 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.

_A WORLD OF WINDOWS AND OTHER POEMS_, p66
by Charles Hanson Towne
George H. Doran Company, New York, 1919.

This poem is commonly misattributed to "Henson Towne".

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