He always set up coffee
for the next day,
As though insuring
another day,
Or the coffee would be
wasted.
He remembered his
friend, Philippe,
Declaiming about Descartes’
famous axiom
As they skipped along
Toronto streets,
“It has a corollary —
‘If you know, you are alive’.
It’s a kind of immortality,
no?”
Once again, the memory
stirred his thoughts
As he held his hot,
steaming cup of life.
The image is a detail from
the portrait of Rene Descartes
by Frans Hals (Statens Museum
for Kunst, Copenhagen).
Bluster & Absurdity 