Growing up is Growing Alone
And nothing is forever…
We’re children twice, and times crawls by
For the very old and the very young
But, in the middle, life’s a blur
The soul’s on fire, and love’s astir
The secrets in the dark foretold
As secrets for a soul are sold
The world’s a chase, we hurry through
Fires blazing, yet nothing to do
But in the dusk and dawn of life
Time elongates the pain and strife
The old look back on lives they knew
While children laugh their whole lives through
But the one thing they always seem to want
Is to hurry up and grow on up
But nothing is forever, you know
And growing up means growing alone
Children think growing up is exciting, everywhere
You turn is something new to see, new to do, new to be
Grown-ups can have all the fun
They can stay up all night and see the sun
Rise in the morning, then go to bed
Or watch TV, if they’d rather, instead
Or read the books on the highest shelf
Or go to the store, or the cinema, or anywhere they jolly well please.
But nothing is forever, you know
And growing up means growing alone
Once you reach a certain age
Your story is written on a different page
You’re an adult now, so act like one
Doesn’t matter if your ready, it’s what’s expected
There’s no time more to be protected
By parents and friends, so off you go
Time is moving faster, now that you know
And you might have fun, that is, until you fall
And there’s no one there waiting for you to call
At times like this, you’re realise that
You’ve finally grown up, at the drop of a hat
Everything comes together, and now you can see
Growing up isn’t everything you thought it would be
And when all the doors have locked, and all the ways are barred
You’ll realise that, maybe, you’ve been living too hard
But nothing is forever, you know
And growing up means growing alone
Freedom is Loneliness, as you stand there and watch
Everyone you ever loved leave you
Everything you ever knew change you
Yes, you’ll be free, but at a terrible price
One in which fate has already cast the dice
Do you want to be free?
You don’t have a choice.
Fate’s hand moves over the sky
And everything you ever loved tells you good-bye
A phone call tonight, and Granny is gone
Faded with the movement of another setting sun
Tomorrow, another, is it Grandpa or Ben?
Everything you ever knew changes, and then,
As soon as you move on, another disaster strikes
And the gravestones multiply in vertical stripes
You kneel in the grass, remember the day
When each of your loved ones slipped away
My brother, my sister, my neighbour, my friend
All met their makers in an untimely end
I don’t remember Brother, but I remember Sister well
And every time I hear her name, I hear the echo of a knell
It’s not just death that makes us move on, it’s life itself, too
That boy you knew in high school sure as hell won’t remember you
Yes, nothing is forever, you know,
And growing up means growing alone
One day, my parents won’t be here, and I’ll be all alone
No friends, no siblings, not even a dog to even call my own
Everyone is gone, and I’m grown up, and that’s the way things are
From now until the day I die, that’s the way things are
Growing up means looking in the mirror
And seeing the faces of the dead
Staring back at you
The faces of traitors and lovers alike
The faces of the past
The faces that didn’t last
Growing up means going to a funeral
And knowing the person who once
Lived in that body
Not just a name
Because you feel the pain
Now, you start to understand
What it means to be alone
Because you are alone
Now
You’re full grown
Rose of Prose 