I cannot sing like in the good old days
For now trapped inside my soul
Are the hymns I mouth in voiceless praise
And silently extol.
The tune is there but my voice is gone—
That lingering echoed ring
In this old man’s heart of an ageless song
That I can no longer sing.
I cannot sing but then again
I only now aspire
To raise anew the old refrain
In heaven’s glorious choir.
written 2018