• These cups are old. Much more old than I
    Each one is a memory, each one a good-bye
    My grandfather was a salor who traveled far by sea
    At each return he’d bring his wife a pretty cup for tea
    This one’s genuine china. This one says Japan
    This one shows a lady, about which dragons fan
    This one is my favorite: violets, trimmed in gold
    They sit lonely on our shelf, faded, dusty old
    Grandpa now is older. Grandma’s is three years dead
    And her tea cups have been moved to my shelf now instead
    And though her story’s buried and has been for three long years
    Her tea cups tell the story to those with list’ning ears
    To the untrained eye they seem but treasures of the past
    To me these tea cups seem memories built to last