'Absence makes the heart grow fonder'
once wrote an English poet
by name of Thomas Haynes Bayly
who surely ought to know
For Tom's been absent since 1844 ~
yet fonder of him I do not grow
Long Long Ago*
(revised)
“Tell me the tales
that to me were so dear
long, long ago,
long long ago.”
My fingers played
in simplified rendition,
prescient I suppose
of the life that lay ahead;
that flooding, someday,
would come my own memories,
my own long long ago’s
of youth bygone.
I was ten
and felt the music
through awkward fingering;
knew the import
of the music, the songs
grandma gave me, the lyrics.
“Dearie Do You Remember?”
“The Minstrel Boy”
Long long ago.
Long long ago.
Kathy Collins
Long Long Ago*
Thomas Haynes Bayly
popular song in the mid 1800’s
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