She met her old lover

on the street that night,

they ran into each other

by the corner of 77^th and ‘Dam,

so she told me

and after much deliberation on her part

she found herself drinking a few beers

just out of kindness,

for she thought he was still crazy

though she still loved him

after all those years.

 

I wish I had met her lover,

I would have warmly shook him by the hand,

for in the way he dismissed her thoughts

and treated her with disdain all those years ago,

I found the woman I could protect

with all my might, yet still be the good friend

she needed,

I thought he was crazy to have let her go,

so crazy despite all those years.

 

Now I meet her on the corner of 77^th

and Amsterdam, I ask her

how her day has been, she smiles sweetly

through those tears,

her make up running down her sweet pale face,

she tells me that her old lover from forty years ago

didn’t recognise her on the street,

he just walked on by without a word,

seems he was lost in old times square

and is just as crazy, talking to himself,

he was the one that was crazy down the years.

 

Inspired by Paul Simon’s Still Crazy After These Years.

Ian D. Hall 2017