Optimistic Youth, Jaded Age
Roll out a lifetime like a scroll
It stretches but only so far
And writing slowly fills the scroll
From left to right
And when the writing stops
The story is over
As a youth I thought it stretched to eternity
That each night I closed my eyes
I would awaken to a beautiful morning sun
But nowadays I sometimes wonder
If I've seen my last morning sun
When life is so very fragile
So many pages fill the scroll of my story
With so many chapters I wish I could erase
And I'm not honestly sure where I changed so much
From the exuberant youth with a life to live
To a jaded old man suffering his own thoughts
Part of me would embrace the end of my story
Millions of possibilities dwindled down to a few
And the once huge supporting cast has become small
And at least half the remaining cast resides in my mind
So many conflicting voices telling me sweet lies
But when you're adept at pushing people away
Eventually you end up all alone
With my lifetime rolled out before my eyes
I'm not sure how close to the end I truly am
For the scroll length is but a red herring
And the words could stop at any second
But if I know one thing from my story
I was an optimistic youth who jaded with age
Roll out a lifetime like a scroll
It stretches but only so far
And writing slowly fills the scroll
From left to right
And when the writing stops
My story is over
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