As life continues to add its burdens year upon year,
And time causes friendships to grow ever more dear;
As limits of mortality become increasingly clear,
And wounded dreams and visions bleed to a blear;
As perspectives dim upon a once lively career,
And one stands no longer on the edge of frontier;
Such is the time when Fate, the reckless buccaneer,
Chooses to interfere and contemptuously shear
Us of friends held near through the yesteryear.
When life at its finest is just a bit drear,
And the cluster of family often fails to cohere;
When prospects for the future appear most austere,
And shorter days and weeks bring little to cheer;
When cynical people begin to sneer and to jeer
At values and symbols which they should revere;
When age slows, infirmity creates its own fear;
Things are less clear through a curtain less sheer;
Fate, at such moment premier, and in manner cavalier,
As an unwelcome volunteer and overseer severe,
Must now appear to commandeer and too hastily steer
Friends of our peer far and away to another sphere.
Edwin E. Vineyard