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Sport 43: 2015
A Line of Questioning
A Line of Questioning
after Xenophanes
These questions should be saved for later,
when the mood is set,
in a library too lovely to read in,
when the fire is almost out,
but not yet,
and Rifkin’s versions of Bach’s cantatas are playing
like an angel’s nasal hum,
and, for the greater good, we’re drinking
a bottle from
the last cask from a lost distillery
on Islay whence the whisky was true and pure-hearted—
that’s the time for saying:
‘That’s an interesting name. What does it mean?’
‘How old are you now? How old were you then?’
‘Where were you when the war started?’
‘What’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen?’