Wednesday, August the 24th, 2005

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And I Shall Walk

… and I shall walk along the pathways adjacent to Yoko Ono Boulevard all the days of my life. And as I pass the hedgerows that line those pathways, lo! I will see many birds, the sorts of birds which make their nests in hedgerows, which I know not. And there will be the counting of the birds.

Now, hear how lies the land. There is the path, or the pathways, and then there are the hedgerows, and then there is the Boulevard, so that we might say the hedgerows divide the pathways from the Boulevard. And in this division are the nesting birds. And they will be counted.

If I have a hope, it is that starlings are the sorts of birds that make their nests in hedgerows, for it is to the counting of starlings that I am drawn. I shall not shirk from counting all the birds, but that is my hope.

In the days now past I counted bees. The bees to be counted were beyond the Boulevard, many leagues distant, out on the sand dunes where their hives had been put. It came to pass that the clouds grew black and thunder cracked, and one by one the hives were struck by lightning and no bees remained to be counted. For twenty days and twenty nights I walked across the plains and the deserts, away from the sand dunes, until I came to Yoko Ono Boulevard. And I waited at the side of that great thoroughfare. I waited twenty more days and twenty more nights but I could not pass. All along the Boulevard was a ceaseless flow of cars and vans and pantechnicons and trucks and charabancs, and I waited.

And lo! I heard the blast of a trump and an angel appeared before me. “Are you he who counted the bees of the kingdom?” it asked, and I replied with full heart. And then the angel led me down towards a dark subterranean tunnel beneath the Boulevard and led me through it. And I came up into the light on the other side. And I saw that I was upon a pathway, and that yonder were hedgerows, and that beyond the hedgerows was the Boulevard still roaring with cars and vans and pantechnicons and trucks and charabancs.

And the angel spoke again. “Here is the hedgerow that divides the pathway from the Boulevard,” it said, waxing like unto James Mason, “And within this division you will find many birds a-nesting, and where once you counted the bees you will henceforth be the counter of the birds.”

And then the angel was gone. And I took up my tally stick. And then you, my inquisitor, you with the green and golden hat stopped me on the pathway and asked me, “Do you know the way to the Blister Lane Bypass?” And I replied that I knew it not. And then it happened that I clutched at the sleeve of your raiment and I told you that I shall walk along the pathways adjacent to Yoko Ono Boulevard all the days of my life …