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 songs

Were waiting to be sung

So many wayward pleasures

Lay 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

Young

Young