Momento Mori
Here we are rounding the edge again
And I wonder if you recall what you said
When I asked to hear your largest as yet unanswered question
And you said, "Why bother at all?
I just arrived by the train from Bombay"
Never heard anyone say it so plain
The prettiest girl in the room stood
Collected her things
Fastened her coat up
Around her fine throat
And though you didn't notice there
For just one moment well
I was the prettiest woman with you
Half a world away trying hard to stay aware of why I came
You forgot the comment, forgot the moment, went on your way
There's got to be a better way to waste day
Your mother you told me had been a great beauty
And suffered profoundly the loss of her looks
You gave a practiced exhausted expression
Recited a line from a quotations book
"My father in his youth set off with a kite and a liter of wine"
Mad to determine the height of the sky
And the breadth of one human life
No ribbons, no starting guns sprinting around the sun
Man's quaint little race
The heaving contenders get one thing to say
And it's always the same
Our name
Why bother?
It is timing through space
We stayed up late until it became early
And camped in the cold on the hood of your car
The neighbors the papers radio TV said
This evening we could see thousands of fast falling stars
That sort of thing happens just once in a lifetime like ours
I'm hopelessly nearsighted
Not much for star gazing
But couldn't let all of those meteors pass
This was our first
This was our only
This was our very last chance