SOMEONE'S LAST INTENTION
They are clapping, Eduardo, for nothing,
while we play stupid music of the bounding
main. How'd that ever get started anyway? The
sea as the 'bounding main'? I mean, let me talk,
don't get me wrong, listen. I like it. It's got a
nice feel. But, what's the essence? What's it
really mean? Bounding main?
-
The martyr on the ship I last saw sinking was
not any martyr at all - bawling, crying his
stinking eyes out as the plastered ship went
down. In that sinking it made its own wake.
He pealed a merciless peal for value and mirth,
in which it was all soft enough but sounded to hear.
-
His last intention was to pray aloud - but the water
caught him good and all his screaming did was garble
up that sound into something else : 'I seem to be dying,
my God, dying here ! and nothing now comes of it!'
-
I wasn't close enough to hear the rest, and he was still
spitting words when I saw him last. He there reminded
me of a Captain Ahab of his own, going down with a
vengeance but going with a purpose as well.
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