The More You Have to Lose
Time flies, and a year can go by
in a day.
Look at your watch. Do your
eyes say 2:45 or 9:15?
The more you have, the more you
can give away.
You know the feeling, having no
money, having to stay
With relatives when you travel,
unable to say what you mean:
Time lies, and a year can go by
in a day.
When my father turned into my son,
as in a play,
All the fun took place offstage.
What about the missing queen?
The more you have, the more you
can give away.
The less you believe. The
more you wish you could pray.
Like a clock without hands, the
truth of a face remains unseen.
Time lies, and a year can go by
in a day.
With an elbow on the counter, and
no passions left to sway,
The all-night waitress smokes butt
after butt, coughing in-between:
The more you have, the more you
can throw away.
Ocean, what is on the other side
of all that blue and gray?
What does the grass know of yesterday's
vanished green?
Time lies, and a year can go by
in a day.
The more you have, the more you
can give away.
--David Lehman