Mangahas, Lady Karen V.

4nu07

OLD FRIENDS
Old friends Old friends Sat on their park bench Like bookends A newspaper blown through the grass Falls on the round toes On the high shoes Of the old friends Old friends Winter companions The old men Lost in their overcoats Waiting for the sunset The sounds of the city Sifting through trees Settle like dust On the shoulders Of the old friends Can you imagine us Years from today Sharing a park bench quietly? How terribly strange To be seventy Old friends Memory brushes the same years Silently sharing the same fear

This is a very nice, simple, and meaningful song. I interpreted it as a song about two men who were friends and shared the same golden memories of youth but got separated in time. Possibly, the representation of bookends meant that they needed space from each other. The old friends are then re-united waiting for the sunset which probably meant they are waiting for the end of their life. Then they reminisce and imagined if they were young would predicted themselves in the future silently sharing a park bench. There silence can mean that there is no need for words when it comes to friends. The composer probably thought that being seventy is strange because the person/s wouldnt be the same as before. As the memories of the past pass through their minds, they realize the bond they used to have. That bond causes them to understand each other, thus they share the same fear: now that the future has come, whats next?