1. How good you called and made your way to visit me, old friend.
It’s been so long since we sat down, at last those years will end.
It’s great to have you bring the news and old times back with you,
And the people, be they good or bad, that we both one time knew.
I want to hear about each of the folks that we were pleased to know.
‘Specially ‘bout that gal I bet you saw not long ago.
I confess, there’s something there today that still for me rings true.
Call it curiosity, but I wish I could’ve been standing there with you.
Can you help me to remember her?
2. My friend, I’m sure you mean your old flame, and does she burn
brightly now?
And how she’s fared all these years as time and nature would allow.
Yes, her brown hair’s gone pale, her smooth skin too has gone away.
But her figure still holds your gaze and delights you to this day.
Her dark eyes dance and take you in until they fix on yours.
Her smile twists at the corner the same way it did before.
And her hands, when they hold yours, they’re lively and so warm.
And her steady gaze, it lets you know there’s just you two in the room.
Now do I help you to remember her?
3. You bet that is all fine to hear and it puts my mind at ease.
I wish a life of happiness for her, all good health and peace.
In years long gone she meant a lot, you know as well as I.
But perhaps her feelings turned to burden and so she let them die.
So when together wasn’t likely and forever wasn’t true,
I made for opposite corners; we did write a time or two.
Then silence filled the mailbox and wondering tripped my mind.
Years wandered in and out of me as I left my past behind.
But go on with your story, oh, help me to remember her.
4. Good friend, she’s led a life of riches, her closest ones would say —
Her longtime love, her children too, the work she’s done for pay.
She lives at society’s center in our old town, they tell.
Friendship is her stock in trade; she carries it so well.
Yet she doesn’t overreach her grip nor lose her way inside.
It’s been a point of pleasure to me, knowing her with pride.
But it did make me stop to wonder that she married late.
Do you think she held up thoughts for you, enough to make her wait?
Does this help you to remember her?
5. You fill me up with more than I can easily take in,
Of this life not led that I myself had simply forsaken.
I’ll admit I paid a certain sum for dreams’ emotions’ cost,
For the assumptions that I made and for the years I later lost.
Ah, but the letters gone unanswered, the calls that weren’t returned,
They originated from my heart, but it was she that let them burn.
Therefore it’s best I think of her in earlier times, no doubt.
But did she tell you things with meaning, something I should
know about?
Can you still help me to remember her?
6. Now she spoke in generalities, but there was one thing she said,
As if she couldn’t frame the question ’til she sensed the very end.
Looking ‘round the room, one thing she asked before we parted,
As if we’d just sat down, our conversation newly started.
Her eyes searched past me, her smile wavered for some
moments few,
Her look, it was uncertain, her sweet side interrupted too.
I answered her as honestly as I tell you these things,
Wondering what response would follow the song that this bird sings.
She said, “Dear friend, can you help me to remember him?”