Poem: Around the Corner

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.

https://www.classe.cornell.edu/~seb/around_the_corner.html