BETTER better than darkness is fake darkness which swindles you into necking with your neighbor´s daughter better than banks are false banks where you put all your rough money into legal tender better than coffee is blue coffee which you drink in your last bath or sometimes waiting for your shoes to be dismantled better than poetry is my poetry which refers to everything that is beautiful and dignified, but is neither of these itself better than wild is secretly wild as when I am in my car in the darkness of a parking space with a new friend better than art is repulsive art which is shunned by Hashem and in the ensuing hullaballoo I slip into broadway theaters and sit undetected in the Hadassah section better than greatness is silly greatness which stands me on the shoulders of my garage the better to drop all the eggs into one basket better than memory is tricky memory which is the juice of patriotism and national interest and the fall of husbands and all the Sad Show better than darkness is darkless which is inkier, vaster more profound and eerily refrigerated - filled with caves and blinding tunnels in which appear beckoning dead relatives and other religious paraphernalia better than love is rove which is the Japanese more refined smoother strangely erotic- tiny serene people with huge genitalia but lighter than thought comfortably installed on an eyelash of mist and living grimly ever after cooking, gardening and raising kids better than my mother is your mother who is still alive while mine is dead as a doornail better than me are you kinder than me are you sweeter smarter faster you you you prettier than me stronger than me lonelier than me I want to get to know you better and better Copyright © 1998 by Leonard Cohen. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.