happy birthday poem

three days i heard them grieve when i lay dead
pharaoh, king of egypt's land
while i stood listening, discreetly dumb
could we but know
i expect you
when the hours of day are numbered
since i have felt the sense of death
eighty years have passed, and more
lived by the river-side
glass-blower of time
you are beautiful and faded
i saw god. do you doubt it?
to be able to see every side of every question