Worth

A boy

rested his head on his hands

and wondered about death

That tail-coated fellow had on a green scarf

that stared to the Boston wind and said

“Let's sail along now

The red moon is rising”

And he snapped his pocket watch shut

and walked toward the shore

Past the snoring one with the knit cap

that woke when the tail coats

sauntered by

and muttered a hymn that said

“I used to love you”

But you said so long

And took them all with you,

from my cottonwood hands

which are left with hourglass sand

because the scarf man goes to the sea

And the sea is all there is

I cried for the boy

“For all there never was.”