On a Dreary Wednesday Night Listening to Leonard Cohen

"Hineni, hineni

I'm ready, my Lord..."

Leonard speaks the verses

but he sings this chorus in his low, raspy voice

His unmistakable tone rings through my speakers tonight

It rattles the desk like his bones, so feeble and slight

He's come a long way from "Hallelujah"

—a secular hymn of love and loss

His dismal state of an unfortunate fate is

rendered in "You Want It Darker"

The poetic prose of a prolific man who humbly embraced his end,

a final curtain call that none could ever circumvent

But there is empathy to be had for a life that is lost

A reminder that we are all given today but tomorrow may not

Whether it comes at midnight or I see death approaching abroad

Maybe I, too will say,

"Hineni, hineni

I'm ready, my Lord..."