Embers
Little men with red caps delving in the embers,
Looking for the lost flame that nobody remembers;
Looking for the Yule log, looking for the laughter,
Fearful of the grey ash soon to follow after.

Youth is like the Yule log, middle life the embers,
Age is but the ashes of a cycle of Decembers.
Youth is like the Yule log, lit with merry laughter,
Careless of the grey ash soon to follow after.

Tick, tock, tick, tock, still the hours are flying,
Twenty brave pixie men; twenty shovels plying.…
Youth is like the Yule log, but middle age remembers
Little men with red caps delving in the embers.

Winifred S. Tennant.