‘Be young, be foolish, be happy’ (Cobb, Whitley) - 2:06
Finger the dust off the old photos
And remember friends you vowed
Never to forget, to love
With all your heart. Contrary
Concerns, jobs, the Tube
Put tearful promises
Earnestly made in drink and romance
Into a dog-eared box in the attic,
Squashed by the children’s rugby socks.
You said you’d protect them;
These ones you cooked with,
Cried with in the calm,
Through the storm of life.
This is the promise you made,
That every phone call
Would be a prayer to the One
That would never leave them,
The stopper in the skeins that
Hold us together.
Their names are the scrawl on yearbooks,
The accessories of the happiest memories
From when you were young, attractive.
These are the men you swore you’d
Drink with in twenty years
In suburban cricket clubhouses,
These are the girls in silk dresses that you
Promised your heart to, show me them,
Give them this message:
‘I have not forgotten you,
To me you are beautiful.
I have lived because of you’.
Sanjay
And remember friends you vowed
Never to forget, to love
With all your heart. Contrary
Concerns, jobs, the Tube
Put tearful promises
Earnestly made in drink and romance
Into a dog-eared box in the attic,
Squashed by the children’s rugby socks.
You said you’d protect them;
These ones you cooked with,
Cried with in the calm,
Through the storm of life.
This is the promise you made,
That every phone call
Would be a prayer to the One
That would never leave them,
The stopper in the skeins that
Hold us together.
Their names are the scrawl on yearbooks,
The accessories of the happiest memories
From when you were young, attractive.
These are the men you swore you’d
Drink with in twenty years
In suburban cricket clubhouses,
These are the girls in silk dresses that you
Promised your heart to, show me them,
Give them this message:
‘I have not forgotten you,
To me you are beautiful.
I have lived because of you’.
Sanjay