Look Ye upon all that I have done,
and scorn me for for the resolutions I make.  
Laugh in the mornings when I rise from bed,
scorn me then and dwell on my predicament:
I shall waste another hour or two,
and in time solemnity takes hold,
as sea over land: hard rocks to pebbles,
pebbles to dust.  How feeble now the dust!
Look ye at the toiling men and women,  
at the grand facade of Custom House Quay;
This building they floated on a swamp.  
Turn ye and look once again at me,
Look ye upon all that I have done,
look at dust and ash of dust and earth.

Janus has a grand auld pair of heads:

One looks backwards on all the **** and grime, on the ****, on the limescale, on the mould, on the excrement, on the muck and grit and gunge and gunk, on all that wastage of human time, toiling away, scraping at the rot and the filth and slime, and besmearing the earth afresh, and blessing it.

The other looks forwards on all the **** and grime, on the ****, on the limescale, on the mould, on the excrement, on the muck and grit and gunge and gunk, on all that wastage of human time, toiling away, scraping at the rot and the filth and slime, and besmearing the earth afresh, and blessing it.

Who is to say,
we cannot break our bond with the earth,
that we are too strongly tethered?
Not I for one.
Nor stone age man who leaps to death in mimicry of the birds,
nor the prisoner who, in confinement,
looks to the sky,
framed with the walls wherein he lies,
and says to himself, or herself, nay, I cannot fly.
And could I fly, I would touch the earth again,
or else burn up in the stratosphere.  
Nay, nor the wild fowl, who may traverse 100 miles at a stretch,
ere they return to the earth.  
Nor ashes carried in the air and bourn away upon the trade winds.  
Who would admit an eternal debt to the earth,
which by every step we repay?  
Least of all them overcome with wonder,
at infinite depth, at scale, at cold beauty,
at the splendid simulacrum of the cosmos.  
Who then would hold me back by a leg or an arm,
who would through envy deny a splendid assimilation with the vasty domains of the other,
for what word, what momentary vocalisation of the earthbound
can in all justice give it name?  
But in good faith, commit my body to it,
and I shall move throughout the eternal regions,
and circle in infinite revelry.
Deny me not this wild vanity,
commit not my body to the earth,
and I shall not call you cur, who walks upon the earth,
and there for evermore is tethered.

Kindly,

*******.

Sincerely,
Me

Here Now - Where?
There
-Far
          near
  -right of Berehaven.

         Lookout!
  everywhere.
... fast moving.

  - on the right-

followed       by      the left

                          __ A great many places

Yet, not very many.  
But always:

Here Now - Where?

THERE

Dear Lord!
Yes?
Oh, hello, I didn't think you were listening.  
I was
Evidently.
I always listen
Well... goodbye then.  
*Yes, goodbye

Arthur dear, don’t fret.

Papers, papers, get your papers.  

I have never been to the sea.  I always wanted to go to the sea.  

No, never since my husband died.  

Oh aye, a sight to behold.  

The rascals of Ballydrim out in force.  

The maid peept out the window.

The fryar and the nun.  

An old man is a bed full of bones.  

Is he not, is it not, is it not?

Rose is red and rose is white.  

New new nothing.  

Row well ye mariners.  

I have never seen the sea.  

The pauper and the layman, the priest and the scoundrel, all moving
with intent.  

Sometimes, fleetingly, never anything less.  

Profound, very, yes dreadfully profound.  

Labour in vaine.  

In great concentric circles about the time your husband died.  

Biting the bullets one by one, out on the green fields of Amerikay.  

Interest rates climbing on the national stew fund.  Spiralling into a new dawn of exoneration of traditional values.  

Gracie did all those things and more.  

And the quaker danced.

Rose is red and rose is red.  

For judge and jury.  

Very very far.

Quite near actually.  

Further than strictly possible.  

In all reason dear.  

75 miles from the sea.  Exactly.

And another.

And another.

AND another.  

Drawing to a conclusion.

Bliss.  

Seemingly.

Fleetingly.  

(pause)

Have at thy coat old woman!