To Me They'Ve Become Strangers Poem by Francis Duggan

To me they've become strangers dear friends I used to know
From them I do live distant and apart we seemed to grow
In the school-yard in the lunch hour I joined them playing football
How come the happiest memories are the saddest to recall?
Like me time is catching up on them they have known a better day
Primary schoolboys of the fifties the years have left them gray
Their children mums and dads now and time is ticking on
On looking back the Seasons where have the decades gone?
To me they've become strangers I've not seen them for years
But for my fading memories I've lost the urge for tears
Like me they have grown older to father time we bow
But the present is what matters for we must live in the now
The past has gone forever but the memories remain
And in fancy with them I play ball in the old school-yard again.