Young, I took it all so . . .

Young, I took it all so

Personally

When things vanished.

There’s a word for that:

Inconsolable.

You’d think, as I

Grew older,

I’d have adjusted

To the simple fact

That everything’s

Borne away

On a ceaseless flood.

But then, I’d never have

Become

A lyric poet—

Someone with a grudge

Against the world,

Against the world he loves.