How are you today
About dying,
She asked,
I dont know,
Often afraid to go on,
The conversation,
With the heart
Closed down,
But this time, intentionless
Intention,
Listened to the sweet-
bitter* sound of his own voice.
Brahmaviharapharanam for AA on learning of his serious illness
* the inversion of the familiar bittersweet; glukupikron, "sweetbitter", was how Sappho wrote it (fr. 130), and is the better sorting of the possibilities in time