Old Friends

Words & music by paul simon

Old friends,
Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends.
A newspaper blown though the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of 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 fears

Sitting on the floor, sharing stories that are interwoven, remembering being a high schooler, and laughing at all of this combined is where I am right now. Someone on the train asked me what I "did." And right now, I don't "do" anything and it is pretty great. It is still hard to just enjoy having time that is not planned out, but being reminded that even if a story was seven years ago, it can still feel like it just happened and it can also embarrass you, which makes you grin even more. Is this song sad? Or somehow uplifting and comforting?