To Tim Smith

 

How old was I when we first met?

Thirty something? I forget.

You were working for the army

And we were both so very barmy

You laughed as you typed and we knew

...About the bridge at Elkhorn slough

And about the owl in the Owl Oak

And Samson Shillitoe, that bloke.

And Connie knew and laughed with us

So I flew here just to discuss

Just when in fact that she would assent

To be with me together blent

So there was a method to our madness

Song and poem and what gladness

That I take it for a rainbow sign

As we begin our slow decline

Or just maybe that has passed

And we descend ah fast ah fast

Where all, of course, come to the end.

Heigh ho for the carrion crow, my friend!

Which, of course, I don't really mean

Who the hell knows...

Your friend,

 

Joe Green

 

Rejoined with:

 

Timothy L. Smith

 

Those were the days, me lad,

more merry than sad

and nobody could assail us!

Now the world's gone awry

and though we may try

...we must admit that things fail us.

 

No more can I stand with a jug in my hand

and declaim many poems from memory.

And where once I was rich, and a sonofabitch

now I'm just an old asshole in penury.

 

Oh the passing of days has its myriad ways

of cutting us all down to size.

But I say, "What the fuck, I've still had good luck

and I'll never give in to Time's lies.

 

As the man said, "So it goes" and nobody knows

what waits as the golden years call.

As for you and for me, we'll just have to see

if we can't beat the odds after all.