Cheerio Then

Richard John Scarr

Cheerio then.
For if I said "Goodbye"
I'd have to accept that you are gone.
And I'm trying not to cry.

I tell myself you're coming back.
But I just don't know the day.
And I'm biding time until you do.
That helps to keep the pain away.

And just to help with my pretence.
I write a letter every night.
And I look for one from you next day.
Then pretend that you forgot to write.

And just in case you wander in.
I set a place for you.
And when you don't, I clear away.
Then do the same the next day too.

And when I wrote your funeral card.
Then I simply made pretend.
It was for someone that I barely knew.
Just a distant friend.

I wrote: "We're going to miss you."
And I pretended it was not your name.
And I said: "It's sad to see you go.
But then our loss is Heaven's gain."

It just a little make believe.
But it keeps the grief from flooding through.
And I'll go on lying to myself,
until the good Lord takes me too!