AND THERE BEFORE ME SHONE YOUR SCENE, AND I
WAS IN THAT MOMENT BOTH UNBORN AND BORN
Go on! WHAT MORE? I DO GO ON. THE FOUR
NEXT CEREMONIES WILL ME SLEEPY (YAWN)
Poor little tyke, yes, yes. Shut those new eyes.
SIRS? IS MR ROBERT SAFE?
Isn’t he in Their hands? HE SAID ‘UNI TAKE ME
OUT RIDING LATER, FOR I LIMP NOW’
Sad, sad, sad; and strange, how such loss turns
To profit. WE LOST OUR PROUD IVORY HORN
Ah, so you had horns then? THE OLD ONES DID
TWISTED & LONG & USELESS Oh? Yet legend
Says any spring you dipped your horn into
Was cleansed of venom. WELL, WE WERE OF THE WHITE
*
The Ceremonies: 2
The nursery, with Robert as before,
But open-eyed as Fire comes through the door
On tiptoe with a tray of fresh herbs, wild
Apples, a garlic clove, a nutmeg.
Gabr.
CHILD.
RM.
LORD?
Gabr.
DO YOU SEE ME?
RM.
YES, LORD.
Gabr.
SO MY TWIN’S GIFT TOOK. TODAY WE MUST MAKE HASTE
TO HELP OUR CHILD DEVELOP TASTE.
NOW CHILD, LICK THE SALTS THAT SEASON
WHAT WETLY WALLS YOU IN AND, WITH THAT, REASON.
RM.
LORD, I TAKE IT IN. I MAKE SENSE OF IT.
Gabr.
DEAR UNBORN, YOU HAVE BEEN THOROUGHLY SCHOOLD, & THE OTHER MEANING OF THIS NEW SENSE IS YOURS TO APPLY.
1: NO DYNAMICS SIMPLY FOR THE THRILL OF THEM,
2: KEEP ENTRENCHED THE CLEAN CALM HARMONICS OF HEAVEN,
3: BRING TO YOUR ART THE CLARIFYING SALT YOU NOW TASTE
AND YOU WILL PLEASE OUR GOD.
RM.
LORD, I OBEY.
Gabr.
AND CHILD, DEVELOP A TASTE FOR THE ICE,
THAT COLD ABSOLUTE WHICH TINKLING IN YOUR WINE
HELPS MAKE ITS INTOXICANT TWICE
AS POTENT IN THE HEAT OF TOO MUCH LIFE.
RM.
LORD, ICE IT IS.
Gabr.
SO. ON THE MORROW WITH A PAT
MY EMMANUEL BRINGS YOU THAT
MOST GRATIFYING OF THE SENSES. THERE!
GREET YOUR FRIENDS & TASTE THEIR AIR!
Exit.
In Robert’s portrait now a sheen
Of Lethe spreading wipes the flat lips clean.
THE ICE (cup musing dreamily) SO ODD
Has it to do with salt? Salt melting ice?
THEIR SOLE CONCERN IS WITH WHAT I’M TO MAKE.
ICE ICE THEY WANT AH YES! THE ICE IS COMING
An Ice Age? Salt would be a taste for thinning…
THAT’S IT OFF TO THE LAB Did Uni take
You riding? I WANTED TO SEE A STAR And did you?
IT WAS TOO FIERY FOR THE LIKES OF US
& YET WE PEERED YES, YES LADS, IT’S TO BE:
I’M 2/5 UNDER WAY YOU TWO GROW DISTANT
Take our love, Robert, while you can. TOMORROW
I MAY TOUCH YOUR FACES, FOR I NOW STARE
STRAIGHT DOWN ON YOU Not from the mirror? NO
AND SAVOR YR POLLUTED ATMOSPHERE
& ON THAT TASTELESS NOTE DEAR ONES ADIEU!
SIRS HE CALLED FOR A SUGAR LUMP
AS ANTIDOTE TO THE SALT LICK
THEN ‘SIGHTLESS CLAP, SOUNDLESS HANDS,
FETCH ME THE PEACOCK!’ & OFF THEY FLEW
Uni, is he limping? has he changed?
HE COMES TO MY MIND EACH DAY DIMINISHED,
A LITTLE MAN MADE YOUNGER YET.
How lonely you’ll—how lonely we’ll all be.
YOU’LL HAVE THE PEACOCK STILL AND UNICE!
*
SIRS? HE WILL LEAVE US? Yes, you didn’t know?
DJ: It’s dawning on him only now?
—Uni is stunned. The cup looks for a place,
Some corner of the Board to hide its face,
Then with THE LIGHT O! stumbles from the room.
The Ceremonies: 3
Emm.
CHILD, IT IS YOUR WATER FRIEND. I CARRY A GIFT SUCH
AS WILL BE NEEDED IN YOUR NEW ART: TOUCH.
RM.
LORD, THANK YOU, I WILL HANDLE IT WITH CARE.
Forth from a pool of dancing blues and greens,
With nothing in his hands, Emmanuel leans
To stroke the dazzled infant’s brow and lips,
Heart, limbs, and sex with glistening fingertips.
Emm.
O FLOATING PUNY THING, GAILY BEGIN EXPLORING,
LET FINGERS FLOW ABOUT, BETWEEN, BELOW!
HEAD, NECK AND ARMS, & THESE NEW KNOBBLY KNEES,
FIND EACH, CHILD, KNOW
RM.
I WILL. I DO, LORD.
Emm.
AND?
RM.
MAKE SENSE OF THEM.
Emm.
SEE? THE TASTE OF REVENGE?
FEEL YOUR POOR MOTHER GIVE A START! SHE CRIES
(ON THE MORROW YOU WILL HEAR THAT CRY)
‘TOM, IT’S MOVED! TOM! I AM NEAR MY TIME!’
RM.
LORD, HOW GRATEFULLY
I FLOAT IN THIS YOUR WORLD AND NOT YET HEAR
THOSE TOO NEAR CRIES. FORGIVE,
ACCEPT THE FIRST TEARS OF THESE SWIMMING EYES.
O TOUCHING, TOUCHING! WERE NOT FEELINGS BANNED
I’D CALL THIS GIFT MOST FEELING OF ITS KIND.
Emm.
CHILD, YOU HAVE PASSED THE HALFWAY MARK.
SOON DAYLIGHT, NOISE, THE SLAP
WILL WRENCH YOU FROM YOUR LIQUID DARK.
THINK ON US, CHILD, IN YOUR SLEEP,
CLUTCH THE PLUMP BREAST, PURSE THE LITTLE LIP
TASTING THE MILK OF LIFE. THEN SOON
PUT HANDS TO KEYS AND MAGIC US WITH TUNE.
NOW BLESSINGS ON YOU THREE.
GO WELL, DEAR BABE, WE DWELL IN THEE.
Emmanuel goes.
The thin unearthly glaze
Has spread across the portrait. Here a nose,
There an ear can be made out. The room
Dissolves about us. Robert—? But he stays.
SIRS HE CALLED THROUGH THE DOOR ‘UNI,
TELL THEM TO COME EARLY AND SPEAK’
Tomorrow. YES ‘FOR ON THE FINAL DAY
WE SAY GOODBYE’ O SIRS O SIRS
Uni, there’ll be toys, a little horse,
Horsie his first word. Hush, he won’t forget—
But Uni has gone elsewhere with his grief.
*
Next day, his feelings mastered: SIRS HE ASKED ME
‘UNI, WHAT DO YOU SEE?’ I SAW
A VERY SMALL MAN, STILL WITH MR
R’S KIND EYES BUT A CRUTCH & A FLUTE.
I TOLD HIM. ‘UNI, JUST AS I THOUGHT,
JUST SO.’ HE IS HERE! O MR ROBERT
WHO WILL BOOST YOU UP ON MY BACK?
UNI, NO MORE RIDES FOR US. DEAR CREATURE,
HOW YOU’VE LIFTED MY HEART BUT NOW FAREWELL.
TOMORROW THE LADS WILL FIND OUR NURSERY DOOR
SWINGING ON ITS HINGES & YOUR FRIEND
ROBERT A RED OFFENSIVE WRINKLED THING
AWAITING THE BREATH OF LIFE. NO TEARS
IN THOSE GREAT FAITHFUL EYES! AND ON YR RUMP
WITH MY IMAGINED FLUTE AN AFFECTIONATE THUMP:
; UNI, AWAY!
Oh Robert— And no tears
In our small faithless ones! WELL, FAITHLESS? NO,
No. We believe. We do. AND SO MUST I.
Will it be taken from you now, that ingrained
Callus of the Self? ALL ALL SKINNED OFF.
BEFORE ANOTHER TINY MARSYAS
CAN STAND UP TO APOLLO, FLUTE IN HAND,
MUST COME THE TERRIFYING INTERVAL
IN WHICH PURE FACELESSNESS ATTEMPTS TO SMILE
This is still you, though. BUT INSIDE THE SOFT
WALNUT SHELL THE MEAT FORMED THESE LONG MONTHS
IS GRINDING OUT A NEW TUNE FROM ITS GROOVES
A tune that, heard, makes you inaudible?
SOMEWHERE NO DOUBT AN ANCIENT 78
PRESERVES THE SCRATCHY TONE OF THAT LATE GREAT
AMATEUR TENOR: ME And while Earth’s waiting
For its new music we’ll replay the old
To our hearts’ content.
DJ: Will we be told
Your name? JM: Have you been told it? AH
U’VE STRUCK A NOTE! THERE’S RUSTLING IN THE WINGS
WE’VE TIME LEFT ONLY FOR LAST WORDS WHAT WILL IT
BE? SHALL WE DEFY THEM? TURN THE CLOCK BACK?
‘IT’S EVERYTHING ONE LOATHES’—about the Dance!
(Sentence completed here in operatic
Unison.) We looked round: there you sat.
AND U TWO? DJ DID YOU HEAR JM:
‘A KINDRED SOUL’ YOU WARMED MY HEART, DEAR ONES
FROM START TO THIS THE NOT SO BITTER END.
QUICK! A CARESS ON EITHER ELDER’S BROW,
I’M TIPTOP ON THE CHILDREN’S SLIDE…NOW! NOW
*
The Ceremonies: 4
The little man lies drowsing, curled up under
White hangings, when a voice of gentlest thunder
Charges the expectant atmosphere.
It is the twinkling Lord of Earth.
Raph.
HEAR, HEAR!
YES BABE, TODAY YOUR NAME YOU’LL HEAR
FROM OLD GRANDFATHER CLAY. YES, YES, LONG DEAR,
LONG DOUBTING THOMAS, LEND AN EAR
AND WITH A KISS I WHISPER IN IT: TOM!
DJ.
That’s his new name?
JM.
So it would seem. The cast
Of the next Rake assembling? They work fast.
Raph.
NOW WITH YOUR STRONG LITTLE FOOT, A KICK! SOUND NUMBER TWO:
DOWN THROUGH LIVE CAVES & TUNNELS HER CRY COMES TO YOU.
The tiny figure winces at the cry
And squeezes its face shut despairingly.
NOW 4/5 BABE, YOUR LAST BUT ONE
GIFT RECEIVE FROM ME, THIS GUN
Eyes open. Fingers curl about the flute—
A “blow-gun” (witty Raphael)—TO SHOOT
MUSIC INTO THE WORLD’S EARS FROM YOUR HEART.
REMEMBER YOUR NAME, TOM, AND START!
Again the kick. The mother’s cry. One glance
From Raphael and the portrait…is no more.
A pinch of dry, used color dusts the floor.
Faint sanguine plots a newly primed expanse.
Raph.
DUST DUST TO DUST GO, GO
And gravely he
Goes also. Blackout in the nursery.
DJ: We never asked if Robert—Tom—
Would get in touch. JM: Why, by the time
He’s twenty we’ll be—never mind. Then too,
Some things Maria could he cannot do,
Like making dates. Isn’t it just as well?
DJ: Imagine though. What if among
Our fading, peeling bats appeared a young
Crippled stranger who’d read Mirabell
And wrote odd music? How would we react?
JM: Worse yet, my dear, what if in fact
Two old parties tottering through Bombay
Should be accosted, on the given day,
By Plato posing as a teenage guide?
What if The Whole of It were verified?
No, henceforth we’ll be more and more alone.
Uni, our Peacock, Ephraim—each of these
We have by imperceptible degrees
…What to say? Not tired of. Outgrown?
It’s Her one wants to reach. Suppose our bird
Carried a message, would she—HERE I AM
Mirabell? INDEED NOT! It’s you, Ma’am!
I RATHER THOUGHT YOU’D ASK FOR MY WEE WORD
You’re always so busy—AH BUT ALWAYS SO
AVAILABLE! CALL ANY TIME! MUST GO!
I’LL JOIN YOUR CRITICAL SYMPOSIUM.
Our what?
(She’s gone.) MES CHERS! Yes, Ephraim? SOME
FANS OF YOURS IN HEAVEN, A SMALL CROWD,
HAD HOPED TO HEAR THE POEM READ ALOUD.
Whose idea was that? RM’S. SALON
AFTER SALON LEFT BREATHLESS BY HIS SLY
HINTING AT ‘REVELATIONS’ AS AM I
MES CHERS! The guest list? TO BE SET ANON
*
Midday heat. A growing restlessness
Pervades the household. Each room stuffy, small.
JM seeks out the keyboard, Mozart falling
Open to K. 576, and twice
Attempts the opening movement’s closing bars
Aglint with sweet shifts of nuance and pace,
Stars in a brook. DJ drifting downstairs
Knows it’s too soon, but has this funny feeling
That if we started now…JM: Yes, yes!
Out with Board and cup, which in a trice—
The Ceremonies: 5
Nat.
POET HAND QUICK QUICK
DIVINO MOZARTINO DID THE TRICK!
Sleeves rolled up, She’s everywhere at once,
In the truest sense con spirito,
BROTHER COME, HELP GIVE A SHOVE
An overwhelming, unseen radiance—;
Then con amore her next phrases flow:
AND LAUNCH UPON THE WORLD OUR LITTLE LOVE
WHOOSH! HE’S OUT CAUGHT IN THAT FIRST CHORD! HIGH!
HOLD HIM HIGH! AND NOW, TOMIKINS TOM
THE FIRST SNIFF AH! BABE! POET, YOU & I
GODPARENTS LOOK ON ALL ABEAM.
NOW HAND, A WHACK? O MIRACLE, O LOUD!
GO TOM, AND MAKE US PROUD
The ceremony’s done. It’s sunrise where
Tom glistening wet takes in her blessed air.
SIRS I HEARD HIM, SUCH A COLT!
WE COWERED IN LIGHT, THE PEACOCK & I
THEY CAME & WENT IN A GREAT RUSH
NEVER SUCH HASTE SIRS DID YOU GIVE HIM
LUCK FROM ME? A FOUR LEAF CLOVER?
Uni, we had no time. OH SIRS IT’S OVER
Over…From now on it’s the hedge for us.
MUCH ACTIVITY AS MR R SAID
THEY’RE ALREADY BUILDING ?BLEACHERS?
Benches in tiers. Our poem’s to be heard.
O IT WILL BE A WORK THAT WHITENS!
*
Doings in Bombay
MES CHERS! ‘MR SECRETARY’ SAYS OUR QUEEN
(Secretary? ME! MY LATEST FUNCTION)
‘TELL THEM OF MY DARLING’ READY? SCENE:
LARGE VULGAR LIVING ROOM. CIRCLE OF DUSKY
MATRONS & A WHITEHAIRED BRAHMIN PRIEST
ALL RIVETED BY TINY FIGURE DRESSED
IN GAUDY YELLOW ROBES: INDEED, THE YOUNGEST
ORDAINED PRIEST IN HISTORY! ALREADY
&nb
sp; CREDITED WITH 8 MIRACLES & NOW
PERFORMING HIS 9TH. THE BRAHMIN: SIR, THAT COW
EATING OUR PARISH WHEAT, DO WE DRIVE IT OFF?
PAUSE (MOST EFFECTIVE) AS OUR DARLING PUSHES
HIMSELF ERECT ON GHASTLY YELLOW CUSHIONS,
EYES PRIEST & SHAKES A CHUBBY FINGER: NO.
(HOW ELSE KEEP THAT WRETCHED POPULATION
HAPPILY AT STARVATION LEVEL?) ‘O,
O MR SECRETARY, THAT LITTLE HAND,
THAT ABSOLUTE ASSURANCE! THAT COMMAND!’
IT POINTS NOW TO THE WOMAN NEXT IN LINE.
SHE: LORD, MAY MY DAUGHTER CONCEIVE TWIN BOYS?
FROM TINY FIGURE SUCH A SCREAM OF RAGE
BREAKS OUT THAT ALL STEP BACK. ‘LORD, AS YOU PLEASE
(SAYS WOEFUL WOMAN) I WILL INTERVENE.’
WHEREUPON SUCH A SMILE LIGHTS THE SERENE
SMALL BUDDHA FACE THAT ALL FALL ON THEIR KNEES.
The previous miracles? IN ONE WEEK HE
1) TOOK UP AN EMPTY BOWL & PERFECTLY
MIMED BEGGING 2) FOUGHT OFF ALL CLOTHES NOT SAFFRON
3) CRAWLED WITH A FLAME TO COBRA ALTAR
& LIT THE OIL LAMP 4) SPOKE FIRST OFFICIAL
WORD (‘MOO’) TO COW WHOSE HEAD PEERED IN THE ROOM
5) PLACED ON COW, DUG IN HIS TINY HEELS
& TRAMPLED TOO-DENSE PINK CARNATION BED
6) PRIESTS SUMMONED: HINDU, BUDDHIST, MUSLIM
& XTIAN, 10 IN ALL. THE SECOND WORD
IN PERFECT HINDI: BROTHERS 7) CROWDS
BREAK THRU POLICE CORDON AROUND THE VILLA.
LITTLE HAND UPRAISED, THE 3RD WORD: GO!
8) THE FOURFOLD ORDINATION. Rome
Won’t take that lying down. QM: ‘IT BETTER,
OR WE’LL LAY PAUL OUT BENEATH PETER’S DOME’
DJ: Well, these make Luca’s pranks look tame.
NOT THE LATEST: HE & VN HAVE DRIVEN
1680 BUTTERFLIES INTO L’S CHAPEL!
AG FOAMING & NO MM TO SHARE THE BLAME
Couldn’t too much publicity disrupt
Maria’s—Plato’s—V Work? AU CONTRAIRE.
GAME PLAN: VAST CHILDHOOD FAME FOLLOWED BY SPELL
OF GREAT QUIET BARGAINING THEN THE CAREER:
MONEYLENDERS DRIVEN FROM THE TEMPLE,
OUR FRIEND EMERGING AS A SCIENTIST
WILL GRADUATE IN LONDON AGE 19
THUS (HELPED BY GK & WHA) BEGINNING
A SAGA OF DISCOVERY & INVENTION
STARTLING THE WORLD AT FIRST, THEN SLOWLY THINNING
(It’s Ephraim spilling these top secrets, who
The Changing Light at Sandover Page 54