As Time Goes By Poem by Myrtle Thomas

As Time Goes By


ashen memories of days gone by
of trials and temptation when thoughts
and feelings ran wild
wild as the wind, free as a star
on fire to explore life, and it's thrills
examine ourselves and reach our goals
it was a time to choose our values
a time to make mistakes, a time of forgiving
futures were so far away from us
a distance we couldn't see nor fathom

desires were at best built on personal feeling
marriages made so young are now broken
pieces of our self split and shattered
we were reminded, we are but clay vessels

soul searching we did that too
looking for something and not knowing exactly what
' the phrase finding ourselves ' yes that's it
the years of the sixties a time of excitement
a time of a war I didn't understand
school friends suddenly killed in Viet Nam, what for?

the seventies music a time for grooving
melodies to dream to on a balmy night
while fireflies flickered like stars in the sky
and like a candle snuffed out so is the youth of our life

my how 30 or 40 years seem to pass so quickly!

but even though gone they were ours
and those years were lived to the fullest
I would never go back to that time, even if I could
and those memories may be blurred by memory loss and old age
but I'll carry them with me until my very end.

' I find in my old age that I probably spend more time
in this time zone than any other.'