Lost Youth

By Don Manu

I wish I had my life again

To live but not in vain;

Realise rainbows beyond the rain

My vanished youth regain:

To traverse fields where daisies bloom:

In sunlit streams to bathe my gloom

And cleanse away Time’s stain

To relive the joy I once relished

In misspent youth’s my dearest wish.

To be the bee on a honeycomb

Fresh from the roses’ scent

Enriched with nectar, freely roam,

To another bloom and vent

My hopes, my dreams with passions zest To blossom at its youthful best

Which old age now prevent:

To turn the night to morn and wring Careless freedoms that youth does bring To breathe again with hopes born new,

To chase elusive dreams;

And dare to make those dreams come true Upon the highest steeps:

To match performances with desire,

To rake the coals, renew the fire

And dance in sunlit beams; To voyage on turbulent sea

And dare the gulfs to swallow me.

Ah to strive with Adonis and wring Ambrosia to the brim;

With Alexander march to the brink

Of unknown worlds with vim;

Discover again my fears to soothe, The aphrodisiac of youth,

Give flight to every whim;

Resurrect youth and see burnished

My soul’s mansion that time tarnished.

I wish I could in joyful mirth

Relive those sunshine days;

Labour my soul a painless birth,

Savour youth’s brave new ways;

And see restored hopes I cherished

Which now in time’s rim lie perished Denied a single ray.

Sip from the fount of youth break free

The shadow of time followin’ me

But in my heart youth will remain

Never to see the sun;

That time eclipsed in a far off plain

And barred hope’s light from one.

Now as I wait the reaper’s tread,

I have no qualms, I have no dread

To hear the death knell rung:

I await rebirth for my heart to sing

And in my winter, see my spring.