It seems the love I've known
has always been the most destructive kin
Yes, that's why now
I feel so old before my time
Yesterday when I was young
The taste of life was sweet
As rain upon my tounge
I teased that 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 to last
on weak and shifting sand
I lived by night
shun 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 wild pleasures
lay in store for me And so much pain
my dazzled eyes refused to see
I ran so fast that time
and knew the last ran out
I never stopped to think
what life was all about
And every conversation
I can now recall
concerned itself 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 game of love I played
with arrogance and pride
And every flame I lit
too quickly quickly die
The friends I madeall seem
somehow to drift away
And only I am left
on stage to end the play
There are so many songs
that needed and wanted to 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