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When she who brings death came
And offered to us the blood-red cup
I took it undilute
While you sought to mingle the wine.
Yet you proved bolder than I:
You called upon one whom we both served
And offered with our libation a prayer
That we, who could not be together in life
Might share in death.
We drank it as a toast
While she proclaimed our union.

We merely toyed with death that night;
We toyed also with each other.
You left too soon that night,
Now you leave again,
Again, too soon.
Yet it is as it must be.
We both have duties:
Obligations to our families,
And, especially, to our work.
You must wander restlessly
While I must stay and contemplate.
We each must follow the way given to us
Until we gain that knowledge we seek.
(Besides, as we once joked,
Were we in each other's arms
Soon we would be at each other's throats
And die at each other's hands.)

Since, in this life
We must part,
Since we cannot avoid death,
I beg of you,
Give me another life.
(Perhaps you already have,
Perhaps it is recognition
And fond remembrance
That draws us to this moment.)
Yet still I ask
(Though I have no right to do so):
Pledge to me
That in the next life
We will not part.
Then when she who brings death comes,
I would see she brings also a blessing and a gift.
If my next death would be in your arms,
Then I would gladly surrender to her multifold embrace.
Then I would drink the cup she offers undilute.
If there is only resurrection
I need not fear, for I shall see you,
Free of this intoxicating longing.
But if we return to this world
Then promise to me yourself.
Either way
I shall look forward to paradise.

Mementos I'd hoped I'd be spared this Exceptional