YESTERDAY WHEN I WAS YOUNG

Yesterday when I was young
the taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game
The way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame
The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned
I always built, alas, on weak and shifting sand,
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of day
And only now I see how the years ran away

Yesterday when I was young
So many drinking song were waiting to be sung,
So many wayward pleasures laid in store for me
and so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see
I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out
I never stopped to think what life was all about
And every conversation I can now recall
Concerned itself with me, me and nothing else at all.

Yesterday the moon was blue
and every crazy day brought something new to do
I used my magic age as if it were a wand
and never saw the waste and emptiness beyond
The game of love I played with arrogance and pride
and every flame I lit too quickly, quickly died
the friends I made all seemed, somehow, to drift away
And only I am left on stage to end the play.

There are so many songs in me that won't be sung
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue
The time has come for me to pay for yesterday
When I was young.