Tonight the lights are going out

 Tonight the lights are going out (c)

By Michael Casey

Tonight the lights are going out

Friend and families are leaving the stage

My parents generation are finally fading away

This week it's 25 years since my mother left us

25 years on, more and more of their friends are dying and gone

The families, the connections are going, fading into memories

The names that made up are community are disappearing

Old Mrs this, Mr Consequently, or the man that echoed goodbye three times

There are no more echoes, no more Mrs This or, the old guy with the stick

Because Time is catching up with them, and now they are all going going gone

A name is a memory, because of the welcome hello, or the sweets given

I remember the smiles 50 years ago as I collected the Tote money

Now those familiar names are nearly all gone

So once they all go, then I will reluctantly have to accept I am the older generation

For now, I pretend  I am still that child of 50 years ago

Even though some even of my own age are already gone

But the parents are still here, so I can pretend I'm still that child

Even though my own children are of University age now

So I sigh, I remember all the names and all the families 

That we saw at Sunday Mass, or I saw from the altar as I read the Bible lessons

for 5 years, and as an altar boy for maybe 8 years

The view from the altar, now I am sat at the back

Or watching on the Internet

The names of the five families or was it more

Are all now fading, then they will be no more

Life changes, time changes

But hopefully Faith is Eternal

So I hope, when it's my time to be carried out

And it could have been  close already

But when finally when my time 

Hopefully in many many years to come

That whenever it is

The friends the family of all the five families

Will be waiting for me at Heaven's Door

As I Knock, and I hope the doors open for me

Glory Be