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 --- Momento Mori - Dessa