Yesterday when I was young,
The taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue.
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game,
The way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame.
The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned,
I'd always built to last on weak and shifting sand.
I lived by night, and shunned the naked light of the day,
And only now I see how the years ran away.

Yesterday when I was young,
So many happy songs were waiting to be sung,
So many wild pleasures lay in store for me,
And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see.
I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out,
I never stopped to think what life was all about,
And every conversation I can now recall,
Concerned itself with me and nothing else at all.

Yesterday the moon was blue,
And every crazy day brought something new to do.
I used my magic age as if it were a wand,
And never saw the waste and emptiness beyond.
The game of love I played with arrogance and pride,
And every flame I lit too quickly, quickly died.
The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away,
And only I am left on stage to end the play.

There are so many songs in me that won't be sung,
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue.
The time has come for me to pay for yesterday, when I was young...
~Roy Clark~