Yesterday

Wasn't it yesterday that I was young
Growing tall in the summer sun?
But youth is fleeting as a summer day
And childhood pleasures are soon swept away.
You wake up to find manhood is here to stay
And the summer sun has turned to Autumn gray.

Why it was just yesterday at the depot I said goodby
And watched out the window as mama started to cry.
I still hear the clicking rails in my mind
As the train left my youth far behind
And the rushing wheels cut the ties that bind.
And I lost something I will never again find.

If I could once more go back and see
The things in life that meant so much too me.
If I could once again walk down that country lane
And see my family all there again.
Why did I have to leave on that train?
And cause their hearts so much pain.

Now as I look back across those many years
I still hear their goodby's I still see their tears.
How can a lifetime pass so swiftly by?
Wasn't it just yesterday that I Left the nest and learned to fly?
Wasn't it yesterday I heard my sweetheart cry?
What became of the girl from yesterday?
She promised to wait when I went away.

I still see her across these many years
With her soft brown eye's so full of tears.
I never returned to calm her fears
Did her love for me just diappear?
Now when your tomorrow's are in decline
And yesterday is left far behind.

When memories fill life's every page
And you have long walked upon life's stage.
Dosen't your heart fill with silent rage
At what you left behind in another age?

When I look back on yesterdays scene
It's like flickering shadows on a silent screen.
And now I know where all the actors went
And I still see all the tears that were spent
They are all with me now in the present.
It's all my yesterdays that I lament.
~Elmer Ake~