Changing World
Yes,
Give that old man a birthday cake,
Throw him a big ol’ party.
Sing “Happy Birthday” loud as you can,
Sing boist’rous, big and hearty.
But yet not even you can likely fathom
The story behind the years;
The changes beheld by those wrinkled eyes,
The past hurts, and longings, and fears.
You can’t have seen the different worlds,
Morphing day after day;
Shifting sands beneath liver-spotted feet
Passing on, and never to stay.
This man has lived a timeless truth,
Known the myth of blessed stasis;
A world that never, ever changes;
But remains – its customs and places.
No, this man’s world is unrecognizable
From the time he was a lad;
He’s seen the turnings of the years,
The ugly, the good, and the bad.
Yes, each of us is doomed to live
The reality of cosmos and life.
Each must live through a changing world;
Through mirth, and turmoil, and strife.
So throw this man a birthday party,
With cake and hearty “hail hails!”
But know this one immutable truth,
That the changing of the world doesn’t fail.
JWG
2022
