Half Past Eight

Creaking stairs and bed for me—

For lucky ones somewhere

A curtain of light goes sliding up,

And Peter Pan is there.

Somewhere the other children see

Hook and his pirate band

Seeking the Lost Boys snugly hid

In the Never, Never Land.

Others will save poor Tinker Bell,

And I not there to help;

When Peter pipes from his tree-top house

He'll not pipe to myself!

If wishes did all they ought to do

Things would not be this way—

Those other children would go to bed,

And I would be at the play.