Yesterday And Today Poem by Albert Ahearn

Oh yesterday! I lost your innocence.
I used to sing and hold my head up high.
Today I am a prisoner of greed.
My wealth is restlessness and misery.
O yesterday! I was a singing bird
happily soaring free among the fields.
Today I am a slave to fickle wealth.
Conforming to mans’ strange and narrow laws.
The fields! The songs! My freedom! -Where are they?
The yesterdays are lost and gold can’t find.
Today my fields are bare, my songs are dumb
enslaved within my palace walls-entombed!
Yesterday I was rich in happiness
Today I am poor in gold and alone.