The Welcome

A Meeting

50 A฀Meeting At long last the choirmaster met the costermonger. They had sought each other for years, always almost meeting, five minutes too early or too late. The choirmaster said, “I harbor no grudges against you, though you have eluded me all these years.” The costermonger replied, “I do not doubt your sincerity. But, friend, I would not trust you at a stonesthrow.” So began their slow duel. And so they fought, implacable foes, in hand-to-hand combat, each with an Excalibur, clashing: until at length the sun went down, and the moon climbed the horizon, to shed its light on all displaced choirmasters and costermongers. And they shook hands and fled, one past the other, into the land of snow and ice, past the tents of the Maccabees; huddling in the rainforests, decamped among the territories, crucified in the rock. 01.Poems.1-64_Fried.indd฀฀฀50 11/28/05฀฀฀12:33:20฀PM ...