I used to gaze out over the bay

To a seeming world beyond.

Beyond James Gatz, beyond Jay Gatsby.

My desire for all things grand

Led to the loss of the thing most important.

Love had deluded me, blinded me

From truth and guided me

To an artificial existence.

I had pined after the

Fair Daisy,

For surely she was a prize.

I see now how I was had, old sport

By the very thing I craved.

As for being wealthy, well,

That's to be established.

I had money from many practices, but

Could money buy happiness?

With my many parties

And people who were

Forgotten after only a few moments?

I found it could not.

Greed and jealousy and anger

All brought me to my knees.

I lost the love I had held

For only a moment for a second time;

I was shot by a betrayed husband,

Who got the wrong man;

And the friend I had never truly

Appreciated was the one to stand by me

In the end.