Alas and alack! Dreadful and oppressive are the inescapable realities of becoming older and being a lovelorn bachelor after my spring and youthful prime.

————

…mourn for the death of my erstwhile youth,

a time of innocence and naive bliss

which hid from me life's dark, unpleasant truth,

but for ever holds all the joys I miss;

a time of mannish beauty, brawn and thews,

as of a Greek god in his peerless prime

like Heracles of fabled strength, sinews

and might that's of renown from mythic time.

But, O Desire!...how do I most long for

your renewal (in my…

By Ngoc Nguyen