MS-UoR-1477-10

[0016] when you went in out of the rain always winter then always
raining that time in the Portrait Gallery in off the street
out of the cold and rain slipped in when no one was loon^king
and through the rooms shivering and dripping till yi^ou found
a seat marble slab and sat down to rest and dry off and on
to hell out of there when was that

[0019] was your mother still ah
for God's sake all gone long ago all dust the lot you the
last huddled up on the slab in the old green greatcoat with
your arms round you whose else hugging you for a bit of warmth
to dry off and on to hell out of there and on to the next not

[0019] a living sole ^soul in the place only yourself and a fewx ^{the odd} attendants
drowsing around in their ^his felt shufflers not a sound to be
heard only every now and then a shuffles of felt drawing near
then dying away

[0022] till you lifted your head and there before
your eyes when they opened a vast oil black with age and dirt
someone famous in his time some famous man or woman or even
child such as a young prince or princess some young prince
or princess of the blood black with age behind the glass
where gradually as you peered trying to make it out gradually
of all things a face appeared had you swivel on the slab to
see who it was there at your elbow

[0024] never the same after that
never ⁽quite⁾ the same but that was nothing new if it wasn't
this it was that common occurrence something you could never
be the same after crawling around year after year sunk in your
lifelong mess muttering to yourself who else you'll never be
the w^same after this you were never the same after that

[0030] never
the same but the same as what ofr God'⁽s God's sake did you ever
say I to yourself in your life come on now ^{(eyes close)} could you ever say
I to yourself in your life turning-point that was a grear^t word
with you before they dried up altogether always having turning-
points and never but the one the first and last that time

[0030] curled up worm in slime when they lugged you out and wiped
you off and straightened you up never another after that
never looked back after that was that the time or was that
another time

[0033] when you started not knowing who you were from
Adam trying how that would work for a change not knowing who
you were from Adam no notionx who it was saying what you were
saying whose skull you were clapped up in whose moan had you
the way you were was that the time or was that another time

[0033] there alone with the portraits of the dead black with dirt
and antiquity and the dates on the frames in case you might
get the century wrong not believeing it could be you till
they put you out in the rain at closing-time

[0036] the rain and the
old rounds trying making it up that way as you went along how
it would work that way for a change never having been how never
having been would work the old rounds trying to wangle you
into it tottering and muttering all over the parish till the
words dried up and the head dried up and the legs dried up
whosever they were or it gave ^up whoever it was

[0040] always winter
then always raining always slipping in somewhere when no one
would be looking in off the street out of the cold and rain