Yesterday When I Was Young

Yesterday when I was young

The taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue.

I played at life as if it were a foolish game

The way the evening breeze plays with a candle flame.

The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned

I always built to last on weak and shifting sands

I lived by night, declined the naked light of day

And only now I see the years that ran away

Yesterday when I was young

So many crazy songs were waiting to be sung

So many crazy times that lay in store for me

And so much pain inside, my heart 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 that I can now recall

Had all to do with 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 games of love I played with arrogance and pride

And every flame I lit, so quickly quickly died

The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away

And only I am left on stage to end the play

Yesterday when I was young