To make up a year
And a sphere.
And I think it’s no disgrace
To occupy my place.
FIRST VOICE: She remembers Ross. A big man, he was. Dug ditches
for the town. Whenever there was a heavy load or a big job....
SECOND VOICE: Then she ate a snake.
FIRST VOICE: Where’s Lethe now? In the prison. Among the women.
She works all day in a room with iron over the windows. Twenty
years. When she comes out she’ll be over fifty.
THEODOSIA: He is a fool that destourbeth the moder to wepen in
the death of her child, til she have wept hir fille, as for a
certein tyme....
FIRST VOICE: They sew all day, to make clothes for the men
prisoners to wear. Over and over, a stitch, the same, over and
over, never done.
THEODOSIA: You have to let her weep out her litter of tears.
That’s all there is to it.
THIRD VOICE: No more lovers, no more men. She killed her man.
Theodosia helping.
FIRST VOICE: Why don’t you tell Frank to bring you down food?
F—o—o—d. A beefsteak. Give an order. Speak plain this time.
Say, “See here....”
SECOND VOICE, _a retreating laughter_:
That creep or swim or fly or run,
After me as you never saw!
THEODOSIA: I’ll tell him nothing.