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Your arms that have kept you safe will shake.
    Your legs will become weak.
You will have only a few teeth to eat with.
    Your eyes will no longer see very well.
Your ears will not hear noises outside in the streets.
    You will not hear the sound of people as they work.
    You will not hear the sound of people as they sing songs.
But a bird's song will wake you
    when you want to sleep.
You will be afraid to stand on high places.
    You will worry about danger in the streets.
When you are old, your hair will become white,
    like the flowers on an almond tree.
You will feel too tired to move yourself,
    like an old grasshopper.
    You will not want to have sex.
Finally, we will all die and go to our home in the ground.
    Many people will weep at our funeral.

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when the keepers of the house tremble,
    and the strong men stoop,
when the grinders cease because they are few,
    and those looking through the windows grow dim;
when the doors to the street are closed
    and the sound of grinding fades;
when people rise up at the sound of birds,
    but all their songs grow faint;(A)
when people are afraid of heights
    and of dangers in the streets;
when the almond tree blossoms
    and the grasshopper drags itself along
    and desire no longer is stirred.
Then people go to their eternal home(B)
    and mourners(C) go about the streets.

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