Mapping The Territory - Elegy (8)

MAPPING THE TERRITORY - ELEGY (8)

'I hate being sedentary.' I said.

The Priestess, she suddenly saw red.

'Well, get up off your arse,' she rudely suggested.

(And, for a moment I found myself somewhat arrested by her unnecessarily aggressive delivery.)

Mapping The Territory - Elegy (7)

MAPPING THE TERRITORY - ELEGY (7)

'I so rue the fact that I feel awful bad when I fight to ensure my own way.

'So desperate to please, I don't often speak out; and, I think what I'd never dare say.'

'And yet, dear child, you come across blunt. You seem to talk candid, albeit a front.'

'A clever facade; I speak fast and loose, but I never disclose that which gives me the blues.

'No.

'Tho' I never tell lies I keep the truth close. I rarely reveal what troubles me most.'

The Priestess massaged her pelvic bone. 'Not sure if it's cysts or a kidney stone,' she moaned.

'But, it's giving me gip, all the same.'

Mapping The Territory - Elegy (6)

MAPPING THE TERRITORY - ELEGY (6)

'Oi.'

I prodded her hard as she lay on her back; grunting and moaning, wrapped up in a sack.

'I hate this fact . . .

'We can only embrace the things we can name. But to call a thing something is never the same as the stuff that we actually feel. (It always sounds smaller, somehow.)'

Mapping The Territory - Elegy (5)

MAPPING THE TERRITORY - ELEGY (5)

'Fools.'

'Come again?'

'I cannot abide fools.'

Mapping The Territory - Elegy (4)

MAPPING THE TERRITORY - ELEGY (4)

'Pssst. I've thought of something else. . . '

'My dear, you awoke me. . .  why do you provoke me?' She opened her mouth wide and yawned.

'Confession is fine if within prescribed times. I, for one, like to work with professional guidelines. A psychiatrist's hour means much less in the chair,' said the woman as she plucked lice and eggs from her hair.

'I hate our obsession with longevity. (What's wrong with the concept of mortality?) I confess, I take heart from memento mori. . . 

'Tell me

'Why on Earth would one ever want to live forever?  Too long for the body or mind to remember? 

'It's no wonder we get old and start to forget. Our hearts and our souls cannot bear the regret that this life generates; it's a terrible toll.'

'How I long for good company: witty and droll,' said the Priestess succumbing to sadness and all. 'I thought we might get on quite well, but, perhaps you should just go to hell.'

Mapping The Territory - Elegy (3)

MAPPING THE TERRITORY - ELEGY (3)

'And . . .'

'What?' said the Priestess as she picked at a spot, bent over a pool like Narcissus. 'Bear in mind, you have only five wishes.'

I continued unabashed:

'I do not like the way we can't see who we are unless we sit back and reflect. The mirror effect only works when we think. When we act, we are apt to forget.'

'Riddles again. Why do you always talk in riddles, child?'

'I mean . . .

'One is only oneself when one's busy performing (at which time one's blind - now I find this alarming - to the critical insight required to behave in a way that don't leave one upset and dismayed.')

'I'm beginning to wonder if you're beyond saving.'

Mapping The Territory - Elegy (2)

MAPPING THE TERRITORY - ELEGY (2)

'Carelessness.'

'Eh?'

'Carelessness. That's the one thing that I hate. We take things for granted, and then it's too late. Too late to recover the things that we cherish - or, the people. It's friendships I can't bear to perish.'