The old man said to the youth,
‘I know of youth and I know of
age, but you who aren’t of age,
can only know of youth. So you
make the music of the strong
and the young, and I’ll sing
the song of the old, that are done.
Together we’ll walk toward the
setting sun, but I’ll leave long
before you, my youthful one.
You’re so strong, so young, so
bright I’m told. You’re my
yesterdays, my memories, and now
I’m old.
‘Oh what I’d give for days gone
by’ the old man murmured, with a
long deep sigh.
The youth glimpsed the man with
the tired face, and knew in his
heart, he bound for that place.
That place, the other side of a
starlit sky, a place called Heaven,
way up on high.
The youth was sad, in pain and
shed a tear, the old man hugged him,
and gone was fear. Longingly, he look
at the boy as he whispered…
‘I go from here.’
The youth protested and cried,
and said ‘don’t leave’. The old man smiled and
said ‘don’t grieve.
For every man, comes a time to go,
it’s now my time, for this I know.
I’ve lived my life and now I wonder,
what it is, that’s beyond the thunder.’
Toward the setting sun, they strode,
and boy sadly whispered, ‘goodby…
till I’m old.’
© Joe Fazio
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