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