Death my old friend, let me lay down with you.
Come around me wrap your arms, to sleep gently soothe me.
My life’s been long, I’ve lived it well, no regrets to speak of.
I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, there were times my heart was broken.
But not one, my friend, would I trade back and lose memory forever.
My first love was so sweet, I was seven and she’d turned six.
We sat beneath the old willow tree, shared our cookies and our drink.
We swore that forever we’d be friends, so young and innocent were we.
By the time I turned twelve she was gone, they’d moved across the sea.
I must admit, I cried for days, my best friend had been taken.
Even now, sometimes I wonder, what happened, how did her life go.
Maybe, who knows, on the other side these answers I’ll be finding.
Was sixteen when I met Maree, a woman wise and worldly.
Hair of black and gypsy soul, yet she was but three years older.
She taught me there in the back of her truck, all the ways of loving.
She had arrived on early morn, never said where she hailed from.
Same way she disappeared, here now, today, gone the next.
For all she said and all she did, leaving no trace behind her.
Sometimes I sit back and close my eyes, can still taste those lips.
Girls came and they went, all nice but none made same impression.
Not until I was twenty five, did I meet the one that mattered.
From when my eyes opened to the day to end of day when closed.
She was always in my thoughts, my every waking moment.
At twenty seven we did wed, my bride, my wife, was ever so radiant.
Our life we lived happily, a son and two daughters we added.
I’d be telling a lie if I said all was fine, there were times we had our downs.
But all in all, we worked on those, together we survived them.
The day of my birthday I remember well, twas the day I turned sixty seven.
Two policemen knocked on the door, their faces told the story.
Lost my life, my heart, my soul, for forty years my companion.
Darkness closed from all around and icy coldness gripped my heart.
How could this happen I wanted to know, at God I was railing.
My children brought me through, brought me back to sunshine.
The years passed on as years will, my family all around me.
Three had grown to twenty two, such a carry on when all together.
Celebrated ninety nine, but I think I’m not here much longer.
Death is whispering in my ear, each day I hear him clearer.
‘Come,’ he says, ‘lay down with me and I’ll take you into forever.’
So gladly I’ll go, my love I’ll meet, eternity to spend together.