ordinary
     this day.
It began at
      Daybreak
Going on as
        They all do
With rising temperatures
            And clouds
And birds
        Trees a highway
Cut straight
            Through,
But in the middle
       Of this day
Came, once
            Upon a time
Like the plush
     Soft of a woman's
Breast and thigh
        An entrance of
A sort, a gateway
     Velour, wet,
Plush, only a man
Could know
       How velvet it became
As the river ran,
     Skies opened up

Heavens angels
             Sang.
And the rain
   It came

Young man with your shining hair
and brightness in your smile.
Your eyes see a golden future
as long as the days are short.
When you open your heart to another
Do you pray to the jewel-hung sky?

Young woman swaying down a street
With your golden hair
Legs caper under a flowing skirt.
Your lips taste only sweetness
as new as the world is old.
When you give your body as you recline,
Do you spread your arms to the gods?

I see you narrow your gaze
at the old woman hobbling
reaching out for the dregs of life.
I hear the pity in your voice,
the sorrow for her and you think
you have a choice
to run from that image,
to say forever young.
You may even laugh at the old man
puffing out his chest
and imitating youth.
I know you're thinking
this will never happen to you.

So enjoy the brightness of your eyes,
the smooth skin and straight spine
that propels you through the spring
Let yourself believe that the leaves
will always be neon green
and the wind warm and soft.
Twirl down the lanes and
fly over mountains and seas!
For all of us did that once
and were as unwitting as you.
None of us, for all our fear,
ever really saw the gulf
of eighty or ninety years,
or certainly not the lack of breath
and the pain of each step,
each turn on a bed
that now feels hard as stone.

We gaze from windows
As you gambol past,
And know you fear to be alone,
Not seeing that at last,
We say good-bye to wind and sky,
that everyone sinks into the earth,
Leaving the power, in our last sigh,
We invoke another birth.

I've got this grand idea
Though it ain't nothing new
We've all easily heard
But have hardly followed through

So I'll say it once again
In case some of you have missed the clue
Why don't I just do me
And you stick with doing you

It's hard enough keeping up
With what is going down
In keeping tabs on what we have
If our heads are spinning round

In this and that direction
Wondering what the other is up to
That's why I say I'll just do me
And you stay true to you

Going back to the simple fact
Of peace and harmony
Which at our bequest will work out best
If we leave each other be

For whom this bell loudly tolls
We'll see that it rings true
If I just keep on doing me
And you keep on doing you