I have something to tell you.
I'm listening.
I'm dying.
I'm sorry to hear.
...
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i think it uses irony because the second person clearly is not listening.
An intimate conversation between two ageing friends presented in form of a beautiful verse, displaying their concern and care for each other in spite of limitations imposed on them by old age and ill health. Thanks for sharing.
Read the poem as one character be young and the othe aged. Then reverse the two and read it again!