There are pictures on the piano, pictures of the family
Mostly my kids but there's an old picture of you and me
You were five and I was six in 1952
That was forty years ago - how could it be true?

We were sitting outside drawing at a table meant for cards
And it must have been in autumn, falling leaves in the front yard
With a shoe box full of crayons full of colors oh so bright
In a picture in a plastic frame, a snapshot black and white

You were looking at my paper, watching what I drew
It was natural: I was older - thirteen months more than you
A brother and a sister, a little boy and girl
And whoever took that picture captured our own world

A brother needs a sister to watch what he can do
To protect and to torture, to boss around—it's true
But a brother will defend her for a sister's love is pure
Because she thinks he's wonderful when he is not so sure

In the picture there's a fender of our old Chevrolet
Or Pontiac—our dad would know, surely he could say
But dad is dead and we grow old, it's true that time flies by
And in forty years the world has changed as well as you and I