In another time,
in his cream suit and gray fedora,
with his eyes in candlelight,
he came from money,
he spoke in rosewood tones,
and bare-armed summer girls
in dropped-waist skirts loved him,
oh how the little ladies loved him
and would've been as faithful as a sun,
from the water's edge he called out
to a dark-haired boy from nothing
and the boy came running, wide-eyed as a prayer
he kissed the boy then left him
in the water with his hair spread like ink,
washed away what dared not speak its name
in another time.