when we are young
we fill our days
with everything that comes along
seductive glances lead us on
pleasures delight our senses
we feel great and strong
then comes a time
when days are filled
with children family and work
with barbecues perfectly grilled
the same old jokes told for a rhyme
and little else
transition to our later years
fills days with memories of earlier ones
life’s frost has whitened our hair
we may start thinking how we were
when blood was fresh in our bones
when we faced our future with all trust no fears
by now we know what filling our days should hold
that our thinking may be clear and bold
provoking to the young and make them dare
think their own brilliant thoughts and be aware
that we have all the time the world can give
but none to spare
“There's time enough, but none to spare” are the final words in Charles W. Chesnutt’s novel “The Marrow of Tradition” (1901) about the white racist coup in Wilmington, N. C., in 1898.
