MS-UoR-1477-1

oats for wheat?
awns for ears

[0017] sitting there in the sun & saying you
loved each other not touching or anything
like that you one end of the stone she
the other a long low stone xxx xxx
xxx like millstone

[0017] not no looks just sitting there looking
in the sun with the little wood behind you
looking ^gazing at the wheat not a sound [0020] ^{all still}
just the leaves and the ears and you
xxx too xxx still on the stone in
a kind of daze not speaking only
every now & then to say you loved
each other

[0020] one thing could bring tears to your ^{one thing cd. bring tears to your}
eyes till they dried up altogether
that thought among when it came up
among all the other thoughts floated up
that picture [0023] of the two of you on the
stone in the sun gazing at the wheat
seeming to be gazing at the wheat

[0023] nothing else to be seen but the sky ^{[⁁]from where you were}
the wheat turning yellow and the
blue ^sky saying every now & again you
loved each other tears every time without fail
till they dried up altogether

[0023] suddenly there you might be back in
your boyhood or the womb that was
the worst of all or wondering wd. it
be rice or macaroni for your xx supper
[0026] or just sitting by the window in the

[0026] dark listening to the owl with not a
thought in your head till the time
came you began finding it hard
to believe harder and harder and
harder to believe

[0026] harder & harder to believe you ever
told anyone you loved them or
anyone told you till it grew into to be
one of those things you used to tell
xxx xxx yourself to keep the void
xxx from pouring in on ^out just another
of those things you used to keep telling
yourself to keep the void from pouring
in on top of you

[0031] your voice saying that time sitting
together in the sun and so on as you
went along or that time walking
hand in hand on the towpath or that
time in the sandhills that time that

[0031] time fishing it in from there making it
up from there as best you could always
with xxx together somewhere in the sun
as you went along or the owl stopped
and you couldn't hear a ^{not another} sound hour
after hour not a sound