An Old Man's Ballad Poem by Barry Middleton

Memory and fantasy
are filled with sad regret.
What was and all that might have been
don't get a second bet.
Forever lost with hopes and dreams,
our youth can never stay.
We learn to focus on what's left,
tomorrow and today.
To know all this, yet still be held
a prisoner till the last,
is fate for some who can't let go
the demons of the past.
They say that wisdom comes with age
and treasures of the earth.
But some would trade it all for love,
the only prize of worth.