I saw him standing by his ute ....this morning in the park . :

He looks pretty much as he always has, perhaps the years have left their mark

It all became too much for me, it's true he looks the same

But I'm buggered if I know why, I can't recall his name :

So I kind of saunter over there and join him by the Ute

Point to the sky and mention how the weather's been just beaut

At about this time I just could have said 'I'm Bob mate, how ya going?"

He would've shook my hand, said his name and away we'd go both knowing

Tho I missed my chance the first time I felt the need to solve this riddle

Still got the Jayco have ya? With the slide out in the middle?"

" Nah, we traded up a bit, we've both retired since then

We bought this one off the missus' brother, do you remember Glenn?"

Yeah well, I actually remembered Glenn and his missus Sue

But I could hardly say, "yeah I remember them but I can't remember you"

Geez it gets on my nerves when my memory let's me down

Scratching my head and buying time and feeling like a clown

But then I realised something, my old mate's afflicted too

All his cogs are churning, but nope, he hasn't got a clue

We're familiar strangers, we know each other's story through and through

We know where each others from and the sort of work we do

But sometimes when you need a name it simply will not come

You're in a conversation, I know I'm not the only one

You're peeling through that big old filing cabinet in your mind.

And it drives you ...Norm ! That's it, I knew it all the time

So now I must be clever, just casually drop it in

"Good to see you Norman, how's the fishing been?"

And I can see old mate is struggling., he hasn't got me pinned

"Bob's my name" I tell him, and both of us just grin.

We both understand the battle and the help that we can give

When you reach that time of life and your memory is a sieve

You all know what I'm talking about, but what's alarming i must say

We had quite a similar conversation

Just the other day...........didnt we?

 

Robert Dungey