Nepsis

⁴For whoever is joined to all the living –
there is hope,
because a living dog is better than a dead lion.
⁵Because the living know that they will die,
but the dead don’t know anything.
There is no more reward for them,
because the memory of them has gone out of mind.
⁶All of their love and their hostility and their passion
has already perished.
They have no more share
for ever
in all that happens under the sun.

Thank you, dear Jesus,
for all you have given me,
for all you have taken away from me,
for all you have left me.

Thomas More (c.1478-1535)