Childhood seems so far away,
When life was all games and play;
Time passes in night and day,
Glee gives way to sombre gray,
As betwixt success and strife we sway. 

Those days of fun seem to be gone,
Of swings and seesaws on grassy lawns;
The trees we climbed, the races run,
Homework for ballgames forgone,
Scrawls on wall with charcoal drawn.

Flowers strung in a fragile chain,
Paper boats float after the rain,
Running about as a pretend train;
Only memories now remain,
And pale scars remind past pain.

Wistful wishes want that time to stay,
Where under the trees we lazily lay,
But life goes on, come what may;
Childhood seems so far away,
When life was all games and play.