Celebrated in childhood
With cakes and parties
Gifts and fellowship shared
Joyously brought
To heart and mind
Denied, a few candles
In the early years
Perhaps a safety against
Overexasperated windstorms
Extinguishing wishful lights
Songs and games galore
Jumping, running about
A frantic frolic all the day
To extract what's in store
From that day's passing
Where everyone around
Is always the same
Little change, it seems
Everyday, they are there
In patience and influence
Agéd birthdays, often grey
They change to the mood
Too often all alone
Where time's sifted sands
Fall upon those most dear
Looking forward then
To another year's end
When older is anticipation
An adventure to be gotten
Achieving as an adult
Amassing fabulous gifts
Many candles burning brightly
Delving into society's roles
A feeling of importance
And elated with life
The days push on
Children appear perhaps
The joy, it is reborn anew
They grow on and go away
All that remains is you
If family blessed
They go their ways
As they always do
Perhaps a mate passes on
Solitude, now a fated boone
No cakes, no parties
No songs of joy
Save perhaps an utterance
A remnant of those days
No laughter, but tears now
A troubled soul
That has let time slip by
Ignoring divine diligence
Recounts regrets unmended
Perhaps kindness unextended
In fervent prayer
Imploring the sun to stay
Do not go away today
It will mean only more age
With gifts debilitating
Those 'golden years'
Those really 'rusty years'
Aches and pains invading
No more goodies gotten
All the time degrading
They pass by like subway lights
All the time they're fading
The precious hours buzzing by
And soon it's time to depart
Off at that final destination
So each year passing by unnoticed
Brings alarm to the anniversary of being
The number climbs ever higher
So many candles, so few left
Like a condemned prisoner knowing
It's grand to see a child's eyes
That they remind our hearts to be
For we are all still children
With but this precious hour
In the day of a life's short span