Valued MemberBy A. Cormack
A push bike with a sugar bag tied to its handle bars,
was leaning against the pub they call the star.
Inside I saw it's owner, a tall and thin old man,
sitting on a stool beside the bar.
I don't know why I asked him, if he'd join me in a beer
but he looked at me and and a smile lit up his face.
"Oh, I only have two," he said, "or I have to ride my bike."
"But on this occasion, three is not out of place."
He said, "I've been thinking just how much we learn in life,
we have to learn to crawl before we walk.
We start our learning on the very day that we are born,
before too long we have to learn to talk.
And later on we go to school, we learn to read and write
and also have to learn the rule of three.
Then comes the time we go to work, we have to learn our job
and on this depends on what our future life will be.
Then later on we have to learn if what the good book says is true
when we reach our span of three score years in ten.
It's then we learn the one last thing that there is left to learn,
If there's another life than this weary world of men."
He said goodbye and thank you, for the drink and for the talk.
I watched him mount his bike and ride away.
I made myself a promise, I'd be here next week
to listen to the things that he might say.
Then came the day that I went there, to the Tambo Star Hotel
but his push bike wasn't leaning by the wall.
Another man was sitting, on the stool where he had sat
and I felt my happy spirits kinda fall.
I asked the man behind the bar if the old chap had been in
and was sadden by the words he had to say.
"No," he said. "He has not been in, and he'll never be again.
Our old mate's gone. He was buried yesterday."
I took my glass in silence and looked out along the road,
where just last week, I watched him ride away
Oh, I knew He'd learn the one last thing, he said there was left to learn.
The secret of that other life, he knows today.
A push bike with a sugar bag tied to its handle bars,
was leaning against the pub they call the star.
Inside I saw it's owner, a tall and thin old man,
sitting on a stool beside the bar.
I don't know why I asked him, if he'd join me in a beer
but he looked at me and and a smile lit up his face.
"Oh, I only have two," he said, "or I have to ride my bike."
"But on this occasion, three is not out of place."
He said, "I've been thinking just how much we learn in life,
we have to learn to crawl before we walk.
We start our learning on the very day that we are born,
before too long we have to learn to talk.
And later on we go to school, we learn to read and write
and also have to learn the rule of three.
Then comes the time we go to work, we have to learn our job
and on this depends on what our future life will be.
Then later on we have to learn if what the good book says is true
when we reach our span of three score years in ten.
It's then we learn the one last thing that there is left to learn,
If there's another life than this weary world of men."
He said goodbye and thank you, for the drink and for the talk.
I watched him mount his bike and ride away.
I made myself a promise, I'd be here next week
to listen to the things that he might say.
Then came the day that I went there, to the Tambo Star Hotel
but his push bike wasn't leaning by the wall.
Another man was sitting, on the stool where he had sat
and I felt my happy spirits kinda fall.
I asked the man behind the bar if the old chap had been in
and was sadden by the words he had to say.
"No," he said. "He has not been in, and he'll never be again.
Our old mate's gone. He was buried yesterday."
I took my glass in silence and looked out along the road,
where just last week, I watched him ride away
Oh, I knew He'd learn the one last thing, he said there was left to learn.
The secret of that other life, he knows today.
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