Crocodile Tears

Apparently I had written this weeks ago during my History of the English Language course and left it in my book with something entirely different written on the other side.

The sway of palm trees,
         palm leaves
  in the cool, cool night
The sphinx begs a riddle,
        unanswerable,
    but the answer is in the wind,
           as unharnessable as
                                a cloud.
And down by the river,
    the crocodile weeps 
       with scaly tears,
            and salty fears
   which come with the rain
    and irrigate the earth.

And 'nothing' is the answer
    to the sphinx's riddle
   (but) the wind makes
          the palm trees sway,
   and the crocodile tears
          in the quiet midnight
            are more heart-wrenching
                than dry, human eyes.