EPISTOLARY

5 2 Y E P I S T O L A R Y D A R Y L H I N E Those were the days when lovers lived in letters, Lived and loved and laughed and languished too, Betrayed confidences, forgave debtors, And did whatever letter-writers do To while away the weeks between the lines With weather, gossip, profound inanities, The nonsense that divinity defines If necessary by profanities. The di√erence between a letter and a note Is negligible, at most a matter of how long Each scripts the superstructure of our lives Which we to one another freely wrote With the openness of song, and so, so long: The writer crumbles but the text survives. ...