When I have wrung the sweetness from my youth
And gained the wisdom of ten thousand days,
Sad knowledge should then outweigh naive truth
With which upon the world I once did gaze.
Then can I bid farewell to childhood grace
That once did cloak the world in fantasy,
And welcome then instead the moveless face
Of life beleaguered in reality.
Of misspent youth I then can make defense
And proudly thus display wise pearls so gleaned,
And in so doing then make recompense
For heedless strife from which my youth was weaned.
Glad folly can enlighten, this believe,
But that which pleases heart, the soul may grieve.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.