Having passed three score ten
the end of days is fast approaching
Where have all the sunsets gone
while I was living day to day?
Contemplate the living billions
few of whom have made a mark
I guess I will be one of them
a clump of earth then soon forgot.
Back when Caesar walked the earth
I’m sure the millions thought the same
never having done great things
so unlike the brave Achilles.
And yet in life I found true love
my children call me everyday
a man who has no enemies
is blessed beyond what he can measure.
Some of us have dreams no longer
some incapable of dreams;
As for me I still do dream
while contemplating poetry.
I want to walk in Samarkand
and hear an owl call the watch
or see the spider weave his curtains
in the palace of the Caesars
or take tea with Dowager Cixi
jasmine in her moon pavilion
summer in Tsarskoye Selo
warm breeze off the Baltic Sea.
.