David Falconer, “School Children…” (1974)

And Bellerophon put his faith in the child, who had seen the image of Pegasus in the water, and in the maiden, who had heard him neigh so melodiously, rather than in the middle-aged clown, who believed only in cart-horses, or in the old man who had forgotten the beautiful things of his youth…

—Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Chimaera

You better believe it
You know my dream’s still alive
You can love it or leave it
But I’m never gonna be 35…