It Seemed Summer Would Not End

‘Round the bunkhouse and corral— Seven years old, without sin— My yeller dog was my pal— It seemed summer would not end. The warm days went by fast— It was time for me to wean— The good things just do not last— I was all of seventeen. Like a horse the years go by— Twenty-seven and still free— All the years they seem to fly— It seems that some things must be. I am thirty-seven now, With a wife and hungry kids— A ranch, cattle, pigs and sow— And look back on what I did. Forty-seven comes too quick— All my days peel off like bark— Half my cattle are all sick— All my days seem bleak and dark. At fifty-seven comes fear Of the things now up ahead— So you live life year by year And hope you don’t wind up dead. Sixty-seven shows its face And it ain’t your best ol’ pard— Others wait to take your place— This ol’ life is just too hard. Seventy-seven’s now nigh And your bones are weak and old— So you ask the Lord just why, Things don’t go like you were told. Eighty-seven was a dream That you never thought you’d see— But things aren’t as they now seem And you’re content to just be. Ninety-seven now comes fast And it will not be a friend— But you knew good things don’t last— It seemed summer would not end.