Scotch Parting

There surely sud been mair fracaw;
A wee bit present, tak’ and gie,
A passin’ dimness in the e’e,
And he’s awa’.

For thirty years I’ve ca’d him frien’;
And mony a simmer tryst we set,
And swappit rhymes when neist we met,
On a’ we’d seen.

And now his stars in yonder sky
Are no’ the stars we used to ken;
Yet there his lave o’ life he’ll spin –
And here am I.

How simply can the thing be dune!
Yet there was nae delusion there –
We kent that we wad meet nae mair
This yird abune!

In letters – shortening ilka year –
A while our auld langsynes we’ll tell;
And sune be auld langsyne oursel’ –
Him there, me here.