Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Another birthday softly creeping
Almost missed while I was sleeping
Of the brain cells that were planted in my brain
Few remain
Welcome the sound of sixty

In restless dreams I walk alone
Narrow halls of marblestone
Call of nature wakes me from sleep
So to the bathroom I must slowly creep
Where my eyes are stabbed by the flash of the bathroom light
That split the night
And felt the sound of sixty

And in the naked light I saw
Ten extra fat pounds, maybe more
Eyeballs squinting without seeing
My ears straining without hearing
And I’m rubbing salve on joints that hardly bend
When will it end?
Disturbing sounds of sixty

"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Sixty like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the year of sixty

And the people sang with flair
To my birthday cake they shared
And candles flashed out their warning
Dripping wax that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the aged are written on hospital walls
And nursing home halls"
And whispered in the sounds of sixty