Where Is The Promise Of My Youth? Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

Where is the promise of my youth?
When I attempt
To review my past years I close my eyes:
My cheeks turn warm with shame -
They burn.
Where is the promise of my youth?

Ah! long ago - long years ago
I dreamed full many a dream
Hot warm-nighted Mediterranean
With flurries in the youthful breast
Ambition in the head
And stubbornness in the heart.
Now all’s subdued and still.

The bustling thoroughfares
Of this my port, my town,
The city that lies in my breast
Are full of unclear air, smokes foul,
The chimneys full of soot are
And I feel
The oncoming asphyxia of dreariness.

There’s here an abandoned city
An exhausted profligate
After the bells of debauchery
Have rung out all his energy
And so with empty hands
He falls:
As in the desert, the burning desert
The sands pass through his hands:
And he cannot look at the sky
And he dare not look on the Sun
That burns too hot for him:
And his hands tremble.

Where is the promise of my youth?