Bohemia Village Voice

[From ‘Bohemian Bagatelle‘, published 1979 by the Bohemians]

YOUTH PASSES

I saw a face to-day

Which took me back in time,

Back to my carefree youth,

When hopes were high

And love spun fine

A cobweb thread of dreams.

Spin on, spin on,

Sisters of Fate,

Weaving your webs

To trap the heart of youth,

To fill and thrill the mind

With wild desires and dreams,

Which reach beyond the bound

Of limitless horizons.

But years pass on

Stealing our youth away,

Until we come at last

Full circle to our fate,

And, elderly, look back

Upon the might-have-been;

A prey to memories,

Horizons bounded, now

That ways are set, and bodies old,

And love, through age, grown cold.

H. Joan Chaplin