This lovely little life whose toes
Touched the white sand from side to side
How delicately no one knows
Crept from his loneliness, and died.

From deep waters long miles away
He wandered, looking for his name,
And all he found was you and me,
A quick life and a candle flame.

Today, you happen to be gone.
I sit here in the raging hell,
The city of the dead, alone,
Holding a little empty shell.

I peer into his tiny face.
It looms too huge for me to bear.
Two blocks away the sea gives place
To river. Both are everywhere.

I reach out and flick out the light.
Darkly I touch his fragile scars
So far away, so delicate,
Stars in a wilderness of stars.

Copyright Credit: James Wright, “With the Shell of a Hermit Crab” from Above the River: The Complete Poems. Copyright © 1992 by James Wright. Used with the permission of Wesleyan University Press.