the way it used to be

life is a heroic symphony in your 20s
people flock around you
and they stay together
glorious, young, beautiful
like heroes together
strong, wonderful and tall
conquerors, all

then you lose them
one by one
slowly
surely
with each passing year
people lose each other
give themselves
and their time away
to other things
to babies and life and jobs
to rush rush and run run
the glow slowly fades
the beauty passes on
to new faces
that do not know you
that find you old and strange
and year by year
the people grow fewer
until only a few remain

and the rest
like you and me
are all out there
all with a part of them
a deep, true part of them
longing to hear
that sweet wild symphony again
longing for the call
that would reunite them
for the reverie
that would once again
excite them
the way it used to be
back then
back when we lived
in a long sea swell

the sound of a phantom ocean
swirling in an empty shell