Losing Count (Poetry)

Where are you now my blue-eyed boys —
sweet hearts once loved so well
blown by the four cold winds of fate
no hero’s tales to tell?

Into my life and gone again
with a smile, a kiss, a sigh
youth led us all a merry dance
bidding each, in turn, goodbye

Though affection chains the memory
those links grow weak with time
nostalgia rules my padded cell
while regret admits no crime

Release is long-since overdue
remission comes at last
the sorry years that age has served
slip soft into the past

And freed from love’s uneasy ghosts
no face can match a name
the record’s wiped — the mind’s a blank
no dregs of loss or blame

So, where are you now my brown-eyed boys
dissolved into the blue?
It’s best you give no thought to me
I have lost all count of you