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, it seems, on weak and shifting sand

I lived by night and I shunned the naked light of day

And only now I see how the years ran away

Yesterday, when I was young

So many happy songs were waiting to be sung

So many wayward pleasures lay in store for me

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, just 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 just like it was a wand

And I 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 happy 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