It’s all over now
All ******* with a velvet ribbon and ready to be put away
With the other memories saved for my old age.
Why can’t I close the closet door on it.
Why am I reluctant to consign it to the dark.
It was only twenty years and a single child.
It was only everything I ever wanted and much less.
I’m the one who rang the final gong
Why is it’s echo so discordant.

Maybe the things saved for my golden years
Should be unpacked right now.
Perhaps I lost track of time, and now the moment’s here.
Why do I expect the gold to have turned green.
How do I know the dust can not be blown away.
It can’t be midnight for more than an hour.
Why shouldn’t the sun come up again today.

It’s all over now
And nothing can be changed.  Life provides few erasers for our use.
What has been will be forever.  What is gone is lost forever.
Tomorrow will arrive in empty boxes
And I’m the one who put them in the mail.
I suppose they’ll all come postage due -
And me with only credit cards.
I wonder if the bank is open at this hour
And if this check is any good.

Maybe I should not be home when the postman rings the bell.
Perhaps I should be out job hunting when he comes.
Why do I think no one will hire me,
There’s no reason to despair.
There’s lots of kinds of things I do
How do I know I’ll never do them again.
Why shouldn’t I be usefully employed.

It’s all over now
And time to get on with whatever it was that seemed it would be better.
Time to see if pig ears really do become silk purses.
Time to learn how many hills I’ve yet the legs to climb.
Why aren’t I excited at the prospect of new vistas?
I couldn’t possibly have seen them all.
Perhaps the rain and fog have put me off.
I shiver in the wet and can’t see through the mist-
Which leaves me ever standing here, right beside the closet.