The Good Old Days Poem by Paul Reed

What is it about the good old days?
The good old days long gone
Something you can't quite recreate nowadays
Something you can't quite put your finger on

But today doesn't have the same allure
Is it purely down to ourselves?
That yesterday had a kind of magic
Despite dust gathering on the shelves

Sifting through an old shoe box
The old photographs are faded but betray
An inner peace and contentment
That is no longer here today

Is it just the loss of youth
A descent to life's last fling
Were the old days really better?
After all the birds still sing

We can still be uplifted
By the wonders of the world around
So why does yesterday seem greater?
Why are we still bound

By the ties of days that have fled
By the far-flung echoes of the past
If only we'd kept the magic in a bottle
We'd drink it now and hold fast

To those rosy memories as we sat
On the banks of the river of time
And feel the warm sun on the grass
In the days that were sublime