From the silence of my grave
I count the cost of fortunes made
A lifetime chasing shiny things
Now death its final audit brings

Six feet under, cold and still
Wealth I hoarded, now bequeathed
Chased those dollars with iron will
Left behind, no fortune beneath

Twenty-five thousand days, all we get
More precious than gold, our only asset
Time's the true wealth we fail to see
Now it's too late for a spending spree

Invested all in golden dreams
Forgot to cash in moments plenty
Nature's beauty, unseen by me
Family dinners, chair left empty

If I could again balance life's ledger
I'd invest in joy, and not be a hedger
The richest aren't those who make the most
They're those who of much time could boast

Time's the true currency, spend it well
Stories shared are wealth to tell
In this vault of earth, one truth remains
The true profit of life lies not in gains

By the waters of Babylon by the sea,
On the sand where the waters died,
The sea wind and the tide
Drowned the words you spoke to me.

The sea fell at our feet. The sand
Hushed the whispering waters, near
The babble of boats by the pier
Was the ictus to the roar on the strand.

By the waters of Babylon a grief to be,
The waiting ships in the bay,
Awed the words we would say
Against the sound of the sea:

For France was below the waters, and the west
Behind me where the rains
Come in November on the window panes,
And the blast shakes the ruined nest

Under the dripping eaves. What then remains
But memory of the waters of Babylon,
And the ships like swan after swan,
Under the drone of angry hydroplanes?

By the waters of Babylon we did not weep,
Though love comes and is gone,
As the wind is, as waters drawn
In spray from the deep.

Neither for things foreseen and ominous,
For newer hands that somewhere wait
To thrill afresh, the reblossomed fate
Did we surrender dolorous…

Change now is yours beyond the waters, nights
Of waiting and of doubt have dimmed desire.
Our hands are calm before the dying fire
Of lost delights.

Babylon by the sea knows us no more.
Between the surge's hushes,
When on the sand the water rushes,
There is no voice of ours upon the shore.