Life is short,
art long,
opportunity fleeting,
experience treacherous,
judgement difficult.

by Hippocrates,
(460-400 B. C.)

IX

"We are what we do."
Tuco reread the sentence.
Arlu had written him
from far away.

Yet, how far?
In time, how far?

He scanned down
and reread
"The perfect is the enemy of the good."
Yes, that is so, he thought.
The good is in what we do
not what we desire.

Arlu was here,
on the paper he held,
she was here.

He began to write
to the good
about the good,
knowing
we are
what we do.

And
it is
never
perfect.