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 where I came.
You forgot the comment, forgot the moment, went on your way.
There's got to be a better way to waste a 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."
Man determined 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 even contenders get one thing to say,
And it's always the same:
Our name.
(Why bother at all?)
It is chiming 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, the 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 hopeless nearsighted,
Not much for star gazing,
But couldn't let all of those meteors pa**.
This was our first,
This was our only,
This was our very last chance.