"Do you remember," thus in the evening
Asked the mayfly, "how, upon the stairs
Back then, I stole that crumb of cheese from you?"
With the detachment of an aged one
Her fly-husband spoke: "Indeed, I remember!"
And he smiled: "That was a long time ago -"
"Do you still remember," she continued,
"That time when I had that terrible blood-poisoning
Under my sixth knee?"
"Unfortunately", said her spouse, half in a dream.
"Do you remember how, because I was angry with you,
I wanted to commit suicide upon the flypaper??
-And how I gave birth to our first egg??
Do you remember when it was half past five??
-And how I fell into the milk??"
Fly-husband did not answer anymore,
He hummed quietly, wearily to himself:
"Long, long ago - long -"