The days grow longer for smaller prizes
I feel a stranger to all surprises
You can have them I don't want them
I wear a different kind of garment
In my rehearsals for retirement

The lights are cold again they dance below me
I turn to old friends they do not know me
All but the beggar he remembers
I put a penny down for payment
In my rehearsals for retirement

Had I known the end would end in laughter
I tell my daughter it doesn't matter

(Phil Ochs, Rehearsals for Retirement)

A human life brought to an early stillness splashing down in oceanic oblivion searching for the depths of the sky. Darkness at the edge of town, light at the end of the tunnel, a stalled hearse and a souvenir from a dream. We walk in our sleep and fire walks with us. By fire we are consumed.
Rehearsing for eternity, for retirement. Life a sum of stolen moments stolen away by the Grand Theft. Next stop, the twilight plane, as an essence scattered, haunting all we ever knew.
(Mark McElhatten)

"Cross over boy, Cross over" - Patti Smith