Song for Hugh

There was a lad of twenty years,
and I another such.
There was a time when it seemed sure
we two would be brothers-in-law . . .
but all that ended. We lost touch.
I did not know him much.

The other day I heard he’d gone.
God grant my song
remember him. A lad appears.
I wonder, half a century on,
how he and I might have got on.
I see him now as we talk on,
vibrant, and sharp, and strong.