Variations on a Theme
(To my 20-year old students)

When once you reach my age,
I shall be dead, long dead.
Such is the cycle of the living,
for you are today
what once I was,
and what I am today,
you may yet be.
We share this common stage,
we overlap, we give and take,
as you may once remember
when you reach my age --
and I shall long be dead.
Then younger ones will think of you,
as you now think of me.
Such is the cycle of the living.
Smile, my friends
– once in a while –
and think that you shall be
as old as I --
Before we gather
yonder in the light,
where all shall go.

Geneva, 30 June 2007
© Alfred de Zayas