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've 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
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 one
And never saw the waste
An emptiness, behold

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
When I was young