You are sick
and it's not your fault.

It is four pm.
It is the afternoon
giving away to evening
and you are sick
and it is not your fault.

It is four pm
and you don't feel well
and we don't feel well
and someone there
- who?
has stopped crying
a long time since

The taxis roll past
less frequently than they did
hours ago
in the night
when the music was up

up

and you knew,
dancing between books
dancing between phrases
of deep, considered truth

how beautiful
beautiful you were