Oh, You Go Sailing

That goodbye was the last one

You looked different

sad and dark

a cover-up smile

creased that part 

of your face I wished to take my thumb and smooth

that troubled crease from your forehead

I didn't smooth you fast enough

and you were gone

with two rings of a telephone 

someone told me the news

when I grew worried over you and called

hoping you were just holed up in your favorite bar

listening to a band you would rave to me about from afar

eventually, when you snapped out of it

the words were so simple

so matter of fact

I don't think I will ever get over that

how?

a simple dive, right off your boat

I thought that maybe

you just might

have sailed away into the night

where you could live on some bright shore

where your worries could be no more

it was a lovely fantasy

a way for me to not have to pay

with just what you had done

but alas

my wishes could only last so long

there was just no way

for me to ignore you washing up in the bay

a sad and lonely boy you were

I wish I could have known your cure.