1. Oh, Youth By Tony Smith October 2003

2. . I go to the old place where I spent my youth. I set on a hill overlooking, yes, overlooking my old home place..

3. I see the old house that I once lived in many, many years ago.

4. It is old now and it’s falling in, yes, falling in. yes, falling in.

5. I listen, yes, I listen for the sounds that I once heard here long ago. that I once heard here long ago.

6. I look for sights that I once saw here long ago but they are no longer here but they are no longer here

7. Oh where have they gone? Oh why can’t I see them? Oh why can’t I see them? Oh why can’t I hear them ?

8. All I see now are Locusts and briar thickets and old grown up fields.

9. Where once green clover and corn grew.

10. . But now, yes now, it grows here no more.

11. Now the old black crows land here Where once they did not dare even to fly over..

12. Oh it’s not the same here no more.

13. Oh where has my time gone? I do not know

14. It seems like only yesterday I was a boy here running Yes, running through the fields and in the woods

15. . But no longer. But no longer will my legs run with me like before. They have grown old and stiff with time and stiff with time

16. Oh why must it be this way? I know not why, but it is so I know not why, but it is so.

17. Oh my youth, you seem to me now like a distant land I once visited long ago

32. Or maybe a dream I once had many years ago. Oh my youth, where have you gone? I know not.

33. I hear a loud noise. I look over toward the old barn where once we milked cows. where once we milked cows.

34. I can see the barn doors are broke down now laying on the ground just rotting away.

35. All the planks on the barn are gray in color and now I hear the noise and now I hear the noise once more.

36. I look up and see what it is. I look up and see what it is. The tin on the barn is rusty It’s an old reddish brown color. It’s an old reddish brown color.

37. I can see that a lot of the nails I can see that a lot of the nails that held the tin down that held the tin down on top of the barn have come loose

38. When the wind blows the tin is hitting the old planks on top of the barn. the old planks on top of the barn.

39. It almost seems like a cry for help.

40. The rose blooms when it will and it goes away when it must The rose blooms when it will and it goes away when it must

41. Death to mortal man is the same as a stalker that waits in the shadows of darkness

42. until time has took its toll. And then it attacks