X - Miscellany: A Moral Tale

The tide was low
The boy lay prone
With nothing but his mobile phone
Corvoisier to slake his thirst
A ball; a patch (in case it burst)
The long list for the Booker Prize
A parasol to shield his eyes
A brace of guns, a sack of pins
Some gibbons dressed as harlequins
Twelve empty cans of Diet Coke
A favourite vase his mother broke
A pair of stilts, some potted plants
Three pebbles that he found in France
A tiny bust of Randolph Scott
A tourist's guide to Aldershot
A box of eggs, a tin of peas
A car entirely made from cheese
The missing bits from Chaucer's Tales
The cure for SARS, some silken veils
These things were not enough, alas
To save him from what was to pass
The gibbons could not bring him round
The tide came in
And he was drowned.