A Life Time Poem by Mary Stephenson Ellams

Those were the days,
Ay, those were the days,
Leaping o'er puddles
And making up plays,
Dreaming of islands in tropical seas
Of snow covered mountains and exotic trees

But oh, how reality transcends the dream!
Climbing aboard and "Ahead - full steam!"
To plant your feet on a foreign shore
Where thousands like you have done before
Where civilisations are buried below
And their relics of art are all that we know.
Music and dance and pillars of stone
Ballads and legends their heroes have shown

My travels done, I cannot roam
I must, per force, remain at home.
My hearings gone, my eyes are dim
Weakness displayed in every limb.
Like sundials between the showers
I register the sunny hours.