Bitterness invades me by degrees.

I studied hard for mine.

Yesterday I heard my youth

On a free download

Receding from me as if through a tunnel.

I heard the last songs of hope

And the acid gall of their terminal hopelessness,

A flashback to when everything

Now so feebly fulfilled

Still stood before me

With its deceitful welcome.

And today I look forward

To what little is yet to come

And see through the pebbles of my glasses

A foreshortened view

Of the few chances left to remedy

My time on earth.

I feel the bitterness devour my soul

And know that I am alive.