From the Living collection
Child of the Wise
as I approached the shore I came across a drowning girl I reached out and exclaimed — "child, take hold my hand and I will guide you ashore!"
but the girl answered, "if I cannot save myself, who will save me once your guiding hand is spent?"
I told her, "you are wise young one, you are wise."
I walked away — for certainly she spoke true not a moment later, the girl succumbed to the sea bed below and my heart sank with her and got spent there and I cynically lamented, "did she not drown a child of the wise?"