Where Are You, Syd?

Meat, hanging on hooks in slaughterhouses
The dull grey of an old service revolver
Shadows that move in your peripheral vision
Children laughing at the loser of a fight

Bright days and starlit nights, scars from old wounds
The Madcap isn’t laughing anymore
Echoes of glory days are distant now, faded
In seclusion you grow old, dreamless

Remember a day long ago before the twilight
Your eyes were bright with running herds of ideas
Where are you now, my much-missed friend of yesterday?
A stones-throw away from death, like me

Bewildered by the flights of fancy that cost
So much more than we could have imagined
I am here and you are there, in the same sepia world
That used to be so bright and promising

Where are you, Syd? We could sit together
By the fireside and reminisce
A bottle of wine, a joint for old time’s sake
Before the stars fall from the sky