The Collectors
The summer sun shone on the sights of the city:
Through the glass windowpane of that third floor apartment
In the first floor apartment his fellow collector,
Ray and his friend Charlie were always competing;
As it always had been, Ray's collection was larger,
He opened Ray's door with a key that he'd stolen
He watched as his friend's pride and joy hit the pavement
No sunlight met Ray's eyes to wake him up gently;
Ray lept to the window and saw his collection,
The wreck on the pavement was worse than expected.
Charlie saw his friend's face filled with such devastation
Now seeing his best friend was honestly sorry
Ray said to his best friend that he could forgive him.
Since the incident did more than make it apparent
Their collection is now in their building's main lobby
A street light, a lone tree, the traffic, a bird,
An apartment building and two of its windows,
One on the first floor and one on the third.
Glittered a garden of gold, green, and gray.
It was a collection, the work of a lifetime,
The collection of stones of a proud man named Ray.
Who also just happened to be his best friend,
Displayed his collection, just slightly less splendid
To the right of his light, on the night table's end.
Just one would be able to finish their test.
Their test was a contest they'd been at for decades
To see whose rock collection was biggest and best.
And somehow it seemed to shine just slightly more.
It was these jealous thoughts that sent Charlie one midnight
Surreptitiously sneaking up to the third floor.
And crept past the bed where Ray slept, unaware.
With a sinister smile like a sly little weasel
He pushed Ray's rocks out roughly into the black air.
And fragmented from the force of its free fall.
Then Charlie went back to his first floor apartment
And slept, as if nothing had happened at all.
None shone the next morning down from outer space.
Ray looked outside and he was shocked to discover
His prized rock collection was not in its place.
Awakened his friend, still asleep on floor one,
And without even changing out of their pajamas
The two ran outside to see what could be done.
Ray didn't know how he could ever go on.
He would keep on living, but life would mean nothing.
The work of his life, his collection, was gone.
He really felt guilty and stunned by the sight.
So he said to his friend, "It was my fault. I did it.
I pushed all your rocks out the window last night."
Ray saw his collection a whole different way.
He'd pick up the pieces, now three times in number,
And put them all back in his window display.
And he didn't want for his friendship to end.
"And now my collection has three times the number
Of stones. They're just smaller," he said to his friend.
The two didn't want to compete anymore,
They took their collections and put them together
In a glass display case that was very secure.
For all to admire the awesome array.
The collectors are equally proud of their project,
And the sun again shines down on Charlie and Ray.